


Shattered World

by Skinna_the_Gecko, themostneontwig



Series: Sonic-Bot [2]
Category: Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comic), Sonic the Hedgehog (Comics), Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Multi, Sonic World Adventure | Sonic Unleashed
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-16
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:02:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 22,290
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28107474
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skinna_the_Gecko/pseuds/Skinna_the_Gecko, https://archiveofourown.org/users/themostneontwig/pseuds/themostneontwig
Summary: Sonic is beginning to cope with his new state as a robian, but the planet shattering into pieces might throw a wrench into the mix
Relationships: Antoine D'Coolette/Bunnie Rabbot, Sally Acorn/Nicole the Holo-Lynx, Shadow the Hedgehog/Sonic the Hedgehog
Series: Sonic-Bot [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2059179
Comments: 3
Kudos: 26





	1. Sky Patrol

A lot had happened in the past three days. The night after Naugus’ defeat the planet had completely split into seven pieces. Currently, everyone was working hard dealing with different situations. Antoine was up and about but taking it a bit easy. He was currently guarding Sir Charles as he and his new assistant recorded readings of strange energy coming from the cracked ground. Rotor was keeping busy, he had a big project that he was working on, he wouldn’t tell anyone as it was a surprise or something of that description. Nicole was managing all the damage caused by the quakes. Amy was assessing the damage outside the city, aiding evacuations. Sonic was training with Shard in their spare time.

So all in all, everyone was pretty busy. 

After a speedy training session with Shard, Sonic was now due to head to the Science Centre. Apparently his uncle had made a lot of progress with his and his assistant’s research and might’ve even developed a theory on how to fix the planet. The robian pushed the door open and was greeted with a room that looked like a bomb had hit it. Papers and books laid strewn over every available surface and what little space remained was decorated with empty coffee mugs. On one of the desks, the head of a sleeping white rabbit with distinctly long cybernetic ears rested. That was Vanni - Chuck’s new assistant. A local history enthusiast who had been taken on as an assistant when he couldn’t take on the task of doing so much research on his own. It seemed like this work load needed both of them by the looks of it and even then they were barely scraping by. Vanni was currently dozing on the desk, eyes barely open, mumbling to herself. 

Sonic slowly made his way to her, stepping over the abundance of papers and books littered across the floor. When he was standing next to her, he gently shook her shoulder, “ _uh, excuse me mi-.”_

The rabbit shot up, eyes wide and yelled, “I wasn’t sleeping on the job!” Just before falling off her chair and onto the floor with a loud thud. Sonic handed her an earbud which she accepted by taking them with her ears. They could move?! Not only that but it looked like the ends of them were hand-like. She sluggishly put the earbuds in her ears - It took a couple tries but she got it. Vanni sat up on the floor and looked up at Sonic. She offered one of her ears to shake, “Vanni Bunnit, nice to- oh wait we met before… didn’t we?” 

_“In passing, I think.”_ Sonic looked around the empty room. _“Do you know where my Uncle is?”_

“Oh, Chuck?” Vanni yawned. “He should be back soon, he just went to make some more coffee.” 

_“You look like you had enough of the stuff already…”_ Sonic commented. It was as he tried to count all the mugs in the room that he noticed a batch of containers that definitely weren’t mugs. They were made of glass and housed some kind of purple mist. Intrigued, Sonic looked closer. _“What’re these?”_

“First off,” Vanni got up from the floor, “these helped us a lot trying to figure this stuff out. Secondly,” the rabbit pulled a container that was about to be disturbed by the robian’s finger, “this is a gas that has been leaking from cracks near the city. We managed to get a few samples but we don’t really know too much about it yet.” She let out a big yawn, “It’s really got us stumped.” Vanni started swaying, she looked like she was going to fall asleep again. Sonic beeped in alarm and put his arms out to catch her but it didn't seem like it was needed. Vanni managed to catch herself by grabbing the edge of the table.

Unfortunately, she did do with enough force to send the glass containers toppling towards the floor. Both robian and rabbit acted fast - Vanni reached out a hand-like ear to catch one and Sonic dived on to the floor to manage a spectacular last second catch. For a very brief moment it seemed like all was well. Until they remembered there was a third container. 

The sickly sound of shattering glass was heard from just behind Sonic. Vanni immediately covered her mouth and nose, not wanting to breathe the gas in, though unfortunately Sonic wasn't able to avoid it as easily. The container not only landed behind the bot, it landed on his power gem. The purple gas loomed over Sonic, causing his power gem to react. It almost appeared to be sucking in the mysterious gas, the gem's hue changing from green to blue to purple as it drew in more and more from the air around it. 

"Oh! Oh! Oh my Gods are you-" Vanni knelt down next to Sonic who didn't respond. His vision was getting fuzzy, some kind of haze clouding it over. The white rabbit in front of him had no more than a distorted smudge for a face and any colours he could make out seemed tinted with red. He wanted to- 

"What on Mobius is going on in here!?" A new voice snapped Sonic out of his daze. His body not cooperating, the robian spun his head a complete 180 to see his Uncle at the door. 

"One of the samples smashed, broke and then Sonic like...absorbed it?" Charles came over to observe Sonic's clouded over power gem. It had settled on a dark purple colour, showing no signs of reverting back to its usual emerald colour.

“That’s not good! We should take a look and see if we can somehow get it out of you,” Charles suggested with a concerned look on his face, “we don’t know what this stuff is and what kind of effect it could have on you.”

“ _But I feel fine Uncle Chuck,_ ” Sonic turned his body around so it was facing the same direction as his head, “ _honest. No need to go all doctor on me._ ”

“You feel fine now but this stuff could take effect later. Hours, days, weeks, who knows,” Charles gave Sonic a stern look, “Plus, there are two of you inside that noggin of yours. What if it only affects one of you and destroys the other?”

“ _Uh_ ,” Sonic thought for a moment, “ _I don’t think that’s how it works? Same body and all that?"_

"Well, regardless, that's something we need to be keeping an eye on." Charles concluded. "I shudder to think what kind of consequences this might have on you." 

Tiring of all this worry, Sonic decided to steer the conversation away from all this talk of gasses and their potential effects. _"You said you had a theory on how to fix the planet, right?"_

"Yes. Come over here." Charles motioned towards the biggest table in the room. Sonic jumped up and followed, unable to contain his anticipation. He couldn't help but feel excited at the prospect of a new adventure. 

"We got a hold of these texts from an old friend of mine in Spagonia. I'm not sure if he realises just how important they are but I'm glad he let us use them." Sonic nodded as he glanced down at the texts. They looked pretty old and it seemed to be a miracle that they hadn't fallen apart by now. "These are records from the last time the planet did this."

_"This happened before?"_

"Yes. And it's going to happen again. And again. It's a cycle, you see. A dark god reawakens, it’s stopped, put to rest, recharges then emerges again thousands of years later. It's been happening since before mobian-kind existed. Only this time, something went wrong - the god emerged too early."

_"Why?"_

"Probably Eggman's messing with time and space, the genesis wave, if I had to guess." Charles speculated. "But there is a way to fix the planet. There exist such places as Gaia temples. Find the keys, open them up, place one of the chaos emeralds inside and apparently that should fix that region of the planet."

"Man! You make that sound like it's easy," Vanni exclaimed. "But I'm just thinking about this now. A planet-size jigsaw puzzle? Sounds hard."

_"Are you kidding? No enemies, no problems, just a really big scavenger hunt? This'll be a piece of cake!"_

“And that’s where the problem becomes a little more tricky. We don’t know where the emeralds are located. We only have one thanks to Naugus,” Chuck stated.

Sonic scoffed, “ _We’ve located the emeralds almost a hundred times. It’ll be no problem._ ”

"Still, be careful. It's premature immersion might've messed it up, but there's still a dark god on the planet." Charles warned. "...I've been feeling it at night."

"Oh, that wasn't just me?" Vanni confirmed. "It keeps getting super cold for this time of year and I keep getting really sad so then I try to go to sleep only to have nightmares about-" She stopped mid-sentence. "Anyway, it sucks."

_"...I haven't really been feeling any of that…"_

“Well, you don’t have a nervous system and you can’t sleep,” Vanni stated. "So I guess you've got some kind of immunity." 

Sonic averted his eyes awkwardly, _"So if we fix the planet, this dark entity or whatever it is should go away, right?"_

"Right. That's what the texts say." Charles confirmed.

The robian gave an enthusiastic thumbs up, “ _Alright then, me and Tails will round everyone up and get to it_!”

And he was genuinely excited. Sonic felt it as he collected both pairs of earbuds he'd lent out and it continued as he walked off to go find his team. A feeling of anticipation swelled inside him, however it diminished as a crucial detail hit him: the travel. The Tornado was amazing, of course, but not really suited for multiple people travelling quite far for probably a large amount of time.

They'd have to think of a work around, Sonic supposed.

“Sonic!” Sonic spun around to see Rotor waving from a distance. He made his way over to his friend, waving back as he did so. The Robian almost stopped midway when he saw his friend wearing the Nanite suit.

_“Hey Rote! Why’s the Nanite suit active?”_

“I’ve been working on a huge project for a while and I just finished it up. I’m gathering everyone on both teams to show them,” Rotor stated, “You know where Antoine is?”

Sonic face palmed himself, _“Oh right, he was supposed to be with Uncle Chuck. I can go get him.”_

Rotor shook his head, “No, all good, just meet with everyone at HQ while I go get him. You know what part of the Science Center he's in?"

_"Well, no. I didn't see him in there but that's where he's supposed to be, so he's probably just lost again or something."_

"Alright. I'll go see if I can find him." 

Neither of them said it but they both knew that he wasn't lost in the Science Center. By Doctor’s orders Antoine was taking it easy and only doing small jobs around New Mobotropolis, mainly guard work. As the days had gone by, Sally had caught wind of Antoine leaving his job to go and ask around for anyone who might know something about Bunnie. No one criticised him of course, all the Freedom Fighters were missing her leading to them all sympathising with their worried friend. 

The mood as Sonic met with his friends could only be described as somber. Now knowing what he knew about the dark entity that broke the planet taking a toll on people's moods, he could piece together why. 

"Hi Sonic," Sally yawned. "Do you know what Rotor's about to show us?" 

Sonic shook his head. He didn't know.

"I have an idea, but I wouldn't want to spoil it. I think you could all do with a nice surprise right now - it may heighten the mood." Nicole shot a concerned glance at Sally. "Along with a proper sleeping schedule." 

"I'll sleep when the planet's fixed," Sally moaned quietly. "I mean, we here have it easy all things considered. What if there are cities that were cracked in half? What about Eggman? He's been super quiet, what if he's planning something? What if the planet breaks even more and just keeps on breaking!?" 

"And this is why you need sleep. You’re becoming irrationally stressed, leading to anxiety and potential intrusive thoughts."

Sally was about to reply when the sound of the door swinging open stopped her. Rotor and Antoine walked in leaving everyone to quiet down, the anticipation building as they stared at the walrus.

"So, as you know, I've been working on something," Rotor stated, "and I think it will help us with this situation. As we all know, transporting ourselves around the planet is even harder than usual right now due to the fact that it's broken. So that's why," a screen lit up behind the inventor showing pictures and blueprints. "I believe now would be the perfect time to debut the Sky Patrol!"

The Sky Patrol appeared to be a big ship that would also be ideal for staying aboard for long periods of time. Several impressed oohs and aahs filled the room.

"That's massive," Sally observed, squinting at one of the pictures for scale. "How'd you build that so quickly?"

"Well, no one else was using the remains of Babylon Garden for anything, were they?" Rotor explained with a grin. 

"Genius!" Nicole complemented. "I was wondering what we were going to do about that wreck." 

“ _Taking recycling to the next level,_ ” Sonic commented, “ _awesome!_ ”

Rotor turned to the screen, “The Sky Patrol has many things inside,” he began clicking through pictures, “such as; Simulation Room, Medical Bay, mediation room, a comic book room and video game library for when we get bored.” He looked at Sonic specifically for the last bit. All the robian did was give him finger guns. “Of course we also got the basic amenities, which includes personalized rooms and a huge kitchen slash dining area if we all want to eat together.”

The picture changed to the last mentioned room, a large round table with a large kitchen visible in the back. Antione squinted at a large machine in the kitchen area.  
  
“Iz ze large coffee machine necessary?” The coyote questioned.   
  
“ _Yes._ ” Antione jumped as Rotor and Tails answered in unison, both inventors slightly glaring at him.

" _If what I saw in the Science Centre is proof enough then they are definitely gonna need it,"_ Sonic said in a sarcastic tone. 

“What did you see?” Nicole asked.

 _“Oh, it was chaos,”_ Sonic said with a shrug. _“Chuck and Vanni looked like they hadn’t slept or tided for days. That coffee was the only thing keeping them awake. On the plus side though, they did figure out how to fix the planet.”_

“They did!?” Nicole asked, excited.

“They did what?” Sally frowned, unable to understand Sonic without aid. 

“Apparently we now know the way to fix the planet!” Nicole listened to Sonic, then translated to the others. “We have to find the Chaos Emeralds, place them in certain temples, and that will restore the planet?” The robian gave her a thumbs up.

 _“Oh also, there’s probably one more thing you should- No there isn’t, ignore that!! What are you- Don’t worry them!! They’re already worried now- Oh, good job bolt brain, now you’ve gone and done it! Look, they’re all- You’re a bolt brain too! No I’m not!”_ The robian had begun ‘desyncing’ as Nicole called it. Usually, the two components that Sonic had been split into worked together seamlessly meaning that most of the time he was just able to be...Well, Sonic. However, if the two AIs disagreed on something, whether it be minor or major the two would… well… become desynchronised from each other.

Nicole, forever skilled with dealing with troubled AIs, had developed a trick to help them start synchronising again. She gently placed a paw on the robian's head and focused hard, using the same method she had used to send Blue back to Bot after his battle with Naugus. Sonic remained completely still for a brief moment before shakily jumping back to life. _"Man, Nicole, did you really have to do that? Do you know how invasive that is?"_

"My apologies, Sonic, but it can take a very long time for you two to work together again. It's easier to just get straight to the point." Nicole looked back to the group to inform them of what happened until she, and Sonic, realized that everyone was staring at Sonic with mixed levels of concern. Tails being the highest with Sally a close second.  
  
Antoine was the first to speak up. “Iz zat normal for him now? I do not remember him doing zat when I woke up.”   
  
“Just some desync between Bot and Blue, it happens from time to time,” Nicole explained, “you've got to remember that one knows some knowledge while the other knows knowledge on things the other doesn’t.”   
  
"Zis is making my head hurt," Antoine groaned, though he didn't ask any further questions.

“It’s a thing you have to get used to now, Antoine,” Amy sighed, earning nods from the rest of them, even Sonic. Though Tails gave a ‘I’m talking to you later’ glare causing a rise in nervous energy in both the AIs housed in Sonic.  
  
“Moooving on,” Rotor said, making the slide change to a picture of a map of the world, “we should figure out where we’re going first. Especially since we gotta find both the Emeralds _and_ these temples.”

"Are these temples hidden, I wonder?" Sally speculated. "I don't remember seeing any 'Gaia Temples' before...Of course we were never looking for them before though, so maybe they were just hiding in plain sight?"

A sudden crash came from a few rooms away from them, “Oh sweet Chaos, please don’t be expensive!” Vanni came rushing into the room with a scroll in hand, “Sir Charles forgo-,” the rabbit tripped over one of her oversized ears, falling face first and dropping the scroll, “... ow.”

“What’s this?” Sally picked up the dropped scroll whilst Rotor helped Vanni to her feet. “Looks like some kind of map...but it’s hard to read…”

“Yeah, that’s the problem with texts written before the dawn of civilization as we know it...they tend to be a bit hard to read. But luckily, there’s some old dude in Spagonia who’s studied all this stuff, so you can go visit him. Maybe test your new airship thingy too. Sir Charles and I will be heading there soon anyway.”

“Great idea!” Sally exclaimed, happy at the prospect of a way to fix the planet.

“Alright. Give me 30 minutes whilst I check the engines and whilst you all get settled in, and then we’ll be on our way.” Rotor agreed. 

And within those 30 minutes the Freedom Fighters discovered that they rather liked the Sky Patrol. Comfortable and practical, it seemed like one of Rotor’s greatest creations.   
  
The only demand came from Sonic. Who was directed to the storage room for ‘fort supplies’. Seeing that a portion of the room was filled with extra blankets and pillows, Sonic gave a nod of approval before being dragged off by Tails to explore the other rooms.   
  
A few minutes before official take off to Spagonia, Sally called everyone over to the new meeting room on the ship.   
  
“Now I know we all at once want to go and explore to find the emeralds and the temples but we got to address this fact.” Sally started two hands together before pointing them at the group. “We need at least a team of three staying here.   
  
Everyone groaned and tried to give excuses to not stay before Sally waved a hand to get them to quiet down. “Come on guys, you know that even with all the guards here and Elias’s new ‘personal’ guards, we need Team Freedom to watch the rest of the city just in case someone takes advantage of this whole planet shatter thing going on.”

“ _Why? What's wrong with Elias’s guards?_ ” Sonic asked, kicking his feet up on the table.   
  
“They’re basically his personal guards and can’t go too far from him or the city unless specifically assigned to something.” Sally explained, “or on their day off. And they mainly operate in secret. That doesn't offer the citizens much reassurance, does it?"

 _"I guess…_ ” He mumbled, looking around for something to think of, he glanced at several flags that were hung up, “ _Hey, can I buy some things when we get there?"_ Sally gave him a questioning eyebrow, “ _What? I’m just buying something for myself and most likely getting Cream a souvenir. Maybe a snow globe?”_ _  
_ _  
_ “Wait why for me?” The rabbit in question responded after Nicole translated Sonic’s words, “Can’t I go?”   
  
“ _Did you ever ask your mom if you could go or did you just hop into the ship?_ ” Sonic pointed out with a questioning digital eyebrow of his own to Cream.   
  
Cream thought for a moment before realizing that she did, in fact, not tell or even ask her mother to go. “Oh,” the rabbit responded, Cheese giving her a comforting pat on the head. “I guess I should be staying. But I do get to go somewhere later, right?”   
  
“Of course, this is a last minute mission anyway,” Nicole smiled as she placed a hand on Cream’s shoulder, “Heavy and Bomb are also volunteering to stay since they know the layout of the city and still want to prove they can protect it. Even better if you’re around.”   
  
Cream smiled as she nodded satisfied with the fact.   
  
“Well zat iz two, who iz the third?” Antione said with a hand on his chin. The debate between Amy, Sonic, Antione, Tails and Sally started up and went on for a while, Nicole and Cream getting concerned.   
  
Before they all went silent as a knock could be heard near the entrance of the ship.   
  
“What, who’s that?”   
  
“Who are they and how are they knocking on the door?”

“I was just wondering if you needed any help with anything,” the door was pulled open to reveal Silver standing there. He’d been feeling restless lately, finding it hard to just sit by whilst the plant was in peril. “Also the door was open?”  
  
They stared at Silver in confusion then each other for a moment before they heard a clunk that was Sonic facepalming. “ _My fault…_ ”   
  
“That fumble besides,” Sally sighed, “you came in at a great time! We need a third for Team Freedom.”   
  
“Oh…” Silver said, his ears drooping a bit. “I guess I could do that.”   
  
“We would let you come with us but we sorta don’t fully trust you with what happens every time you show up.” Tails huffed crossing his arms while Sonic looked confused at him.

“Tails!” Nicole and Sally gasped.

“Nah, it’s fair.” Silver sighed, waving a hand to dismiss the scolding. “Makes more sense now that he brought that up. I did try to kill almost everyone here.”

“ _Pfft, I’m pretty sure almost everyone here has tried to kill someone here,_ ” Sonic remarked. Inside the digital space that is Sonic’s mind Bot realizes the faces his friends are making before turning to Blue, who’s hand was over his face.   
  
“ _What? What did I say wrong?”_ Bot said confused. _  
_ _  
_ “I’ll tell you later.” Blue responded with a large sigh, before turning his attention back to the physical world. "It's a bit of a sensitive topic."

"Ok, so I'm staying here and I've got to just be on guard and my best behaviour in case Eggman tries something?" Silver asked. Not what he was hoping for but baby steps, he supposed. As long as he was doing something to win back some trust. “I can do that!”

“Good. All should be peaceful, but you never know,” Sally explained. “There’s a lot of uncertainty right now.” 

Silver agreed then headed off with Cream to find the rest of the makeshift team that would be protecting New Mobotropolis. Rotor informed them that they were clear for take off, and that was it. They were off. The Freedom Fighters peered out of the ship as they watched the ground get further away. 

“Sit tight, Freedom Fighters!” Rotor announced. “Next stop - Spagonia!”

**A/N:**

Hey, so Vanni, huh? Yeah, she's Skinna's oc! I won't spoil anything, but rest assured, she is here for a reason. If you look very closely, you might actually be able to guess what her story's going to link in with. But for now, here's a doodle of her design by yours truly, twigs.


	2. Seashore trainwreck

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A speeding train that's about to blow up!? Sounds like a job for Sonic the Hedgehog!

The journey to Spagonia was a breeze. It went by quickly, and everyone was in pretty high spirits. Knowing that the planet could indeed be fixed and had been before was a comforting idea. No more wondering if this was the end of the world.

Spagonia was a beautiful city as well as one that Sonic was completely new to. They arrived on a blissful summer afternoon at the city, greeted by a sense of unity and community over this crisis. The coastal city was a big tourist attraction for a multitude of reasons. For one it was a holiday hotspot, with its bright sandy beaches, architecturally impressive city and famous ice creams attracting both those who lived on land and the fish mobians who lived in the sea to take the time to go there and chill. And for another, the city had a rich and interesting history, with how it was built, it hadn't been costal at all, but rather made that way as the earth began to reform itself all those years ago. All this meant that when the planet broke apart, many had been left stranded in the city, unable to safely return to their own homes. But bless the people of Spagonia, they had done everything they could to help. Whether it be taking the stranded into their homes or opening up venues and hotels for people to freely stay in, the crisis was being handled decently. 

The Freedom Fighters weren’t alone here though, as they strolled down the street it came to their attention that the United Federations appeared to be out and about. Amy tapped Tails’ shoulder to ask him if he knew why they were here and Tails speculated that they were probably just here to help evacuate people and drop supplies so Spagonia could better help people. 

The UF’s presence not bothering them all that much, the Freedom Fighters went through Spagonia in a relaxed fashion. After all, their mission was simply just to talk to a nice old guy about some maps. No need to rush anything. Well, there were a few minutes where Sally was trying to usher everyone along but once they turned a certain corner she gave in like the rest of them. They were greeted with a street lined with stalls, enthusiastic sellers calling out at them from behind colourful stands about their products. Sonic tried not to feel envious when he watched most of his friends going to try some of that signature ice cream, choosing to linger behind while they all went over. He remembered his Dad once saying that the feelings of wanting to eat started to go away after a while, as you slowly forget about it and what it was like but that wasn’t exactly a comfort for Sonic. Or rather Blue specifically, Bot seemed content enough to watch the people around him get on with their day to day lives, but Blue couldn’t escape the feelings of alienation that came with it.  Not wanting to dwell on this any longer, Sonic turned his attention to some of the other stands, specifically one adorned with many brightly coloured flags. He recalled thinking back in New Mobotropolis how cool it would be if he hung one of these for his room on the Sky Patrol back in New Mobotropolis. He picked up one that was pink, purple and blue, one that he identified with, and paid for it thankfully.

“Sonic?” 

The robian spun around to see a few familiar faces walking towards him. Shadow, Rouge and Omega were heading for him, and so Sonic began to walk to meet them, hoping that they wouldn’t freak out upon seeing him like this.

_ “Yeah. Long time no see, eh?”  _

He complimented his greeting with a casual wave to try and help ease the blow, but Shadow and Rouge’s expressions still showed shock and uncertainty. 

“Sonic what did you...what’ve you gone and done this time?” Shadow asked, half in disbelief, half not surprised at all.

_ “I only went and saved all of you again, you’re welcome,”  _ Sonic joked before answering properly. _ “Eggman had this thing called the world roboticizer. I put a stop to it but...at a cost.”  _

“Not to be rude or anything, Blue, but we didn’t get any of that,” Rouge stated before being loudly interrupted by Omega.

“HE SAYS THAT DR. EGGMAN HAD A ROBOTICIZER THAT WAS GOING TO DESTROY THE WORLD AND THAT YOU SHOULD THANK HIM FOR SAVING YOU FROM IT.” 

_ “I was being sarcast-” _

“THANK YOU FOR FURTHER MADDENING MY CREATOR. AND WELCOME ABOARD LITTLE BROTHER.”

Little brother? Well, they were technically linked in some way now, Sonic supposed. He thanked Omega awkwardly before continuing the conversation. 

_ “What brings you to Spagonia then?” _

After Omega relayed the message, he got an answer from Shadow. “UF have been helping cities like this since the split. But we were called in for a more specific reason. There’s been a kidnapping, specifically of some professor. Professor Pickle? That might’ve been the name.” 

_ “We needed to see that guy too! Let me tell Sally, we’ll come help!”  _

“Thanks, but that won’t be necessary. We’re elites, I think we can handle getting an old man off of a train.” 

_ “Well duh,”  _ Sonic sassed.  _ “Obviously you could do it. But with us, you could do it faster.”  _

“HE SAYS THE FREEDOM FIGHTERS COULD DO IT FASTER THAN YOU.” 

_ “Wait no, that’s not what I said-”  _

“Is that a challenge?” 

_ “Only if you want it to be. What’s all this about a train?”  _

“THE TRAIN IS HEADED EAST FOR AN EGGMAN BASE. IT IS HARD TO MISS.” 

“Boys, we really need to get a move on,” Rouge sighed. “Or that train’s going to escape with the professor on it.” 

And then Team Dark were gone, but unbeknownst to them, Sonic and the Freedom Fighters were also on the move. The instant Team Dark had left, Sonic had gone to tell Sally and the others about the eastbound train that had taken the professor with it. Within just ten minutes they’d grabbed some of the Extreme Gear that was stored on the Sky Patrol, Rotor had equipped his Nanite suit, and they too were speeding after the same train.

It was easy to spot the train, Eggman wasn’t known for his subtlety. A private train line with a train that had the empire’s logo on the carriages? It was almost as if he was asking for his plans to get foiled. 

Sonic grinned and rubbed his hands together, “ _ Finally, I get to see if that training paid off. _ ” The robian touched down on the roof of a carriage, making a clunking sound as his feet connected with the top. 

“Search every compartment!” Sally instructed over the roaring wind. “He’s got to be in there somewhere!” 

Sonic opened the ventilation in the roof and swung into the train, green light flooding from his eyes and spilling out onto his dark surroundings. Nothing but storage crates in here, it seemed. Still, it might be ideal to check what the train was carrying. Sonic wouldn't have put it past Eggman to leave a trap for his enemies. Sonic pried open the crate that was nearest to him, then peered inside, gazing down at the contents before bouncing back from a need to get as far away from those as possible. 

_ “Nicole? We need to be off this train in 17 minutes, or it’s gonna blow!” _

“Ok, Sonic,” Nicole’s voice crackled. “I’ll relay that to the others!”

Not wanting to waste a single second now that he knew time wasn’t on his side, Sonic pressed onwards, hopping into the next compartment of the train. It was empty, except for a...pool table? Kind of weird, but it was Eggman they were dealing with, so anything went, Sonic supposed. It was probably just there as a distraction.

Moving onwards provided nothing more helpful or substantial, just empty rooms and badniks which needed a good cannon blast to the face. Sonic was half beginning to wonder if this train was actually just an elaborate trap for them all. His friends didn’t seem to be having much luck either, all was quiet on the communications network, much to Sonic’s worry and disappointment. 

He moved onto the next compartment, only to be greeted by neither the face of one of his fell Freedom Fighters nor a badnik. Rather, he was looking right into the crimson eyes of Shadow the Hedgehog. “So, you actually came?”

_ “Of course!”  _ Sonic replied. He winced on the inside from Shadow’s blank expression, knowing that the hedgehog had heard nothing more than a string of incoherent noises. Still trying his best to stop obsessing over tiny negative details and also very much aware of the ticking clock, Sonic shoved an earbud into one of Shadow’s ears, then started to run.  _ “Come on! This train’s going to blow up and if we’re not quick we’ll still be on it!” _

“What the hell!? You don’t shove things in someone else’s ears!” Shadow shouted, “and by the way, I will be able to find the Professor quite fast, I’ll have you know!”

Sonic made a noise that sounded a bit like an annoyed microwave and shoved Shadow out of the way, “ _ We don’t have time for bickering! _ ”

The two began to race through the train, Shadow skating, Sonic utilising his nanites to give him boosters. In spite of that, Shadow was ahead of Sonic. The robian knew it wasn’t a race, but that old competitive spark was beginning to ignite. He wanted to prove himself to Shadow! It made no sense, as long as one of them rescued the professor, it didn’t matter. And yet Sonic continued to race. Inside the mindscape, Bot gasped.

“Sonic!” A surprisingly familiar voice greeted Sonic as him and Shadow dashed into the next compartment. Sonic shone his eyes in the direction of the sound to reveal that Eggman had not only kidnapped Professor Pickle, but also his uncle too. Sonic was fuming mad. He didn’t know why Eggman had kidnapped Chuck, nor did he care at this moment. 

He ran up to the glass, pressing his hands up against the glass, “ _ Uncle Chuck! What are you doing here!? _ ”

Charles shook his head and gave him an apologetic, “Sorry nephew, I can’t understand ya. I returned them to you when you were leaving the Science Center, remember?”

Sonic nodded but he was only half listening. Fury was still building up inside and that minute detail that he could usually overcome wasn't helping. He  _ hated  _ not being able to be understood and he hated the way his 'voice' now sounded. And it was all Eggman's fault, Eggman, Eggman, Eggman. That kidnapping, backstabbing, murdering-

"Sonic!" Shadow's voice sent him crashing back down to reality. The glass before him now bore deep scratches. Looking down at his hands, he noticed that in his rage, the nanites had manifested massive claws, small sparks of strange but familiar purple jumping off of them. Sonic let out a surprised squeak while stumbling back, waving his hands until they looked normal again, quiet purple steam hissing of them briefly. After a brief look of concern to the blue hedgehog, now staring at his hands with a shocked face, Shadow's focus returned to the two kidnapped researchers, "He asked why you're here.” He turned back to Sonic, who now was crossing his arms with a huff, “ were you not aware he and the Professor were collaborating on the research? Your uncle just recently joined him.”

_ "I know that. It's just that I thought he'd have been fine in New Mobotropolis,"  _ Sonic explained.  _ "It's not like we left the city unprotected." _

“Well, nevermind how they got here, we need to get them out.” Shadow stated before informing the two researchers that the train was going to blow up. 

Sonic let out a breath, trying to compose himself, “ _ Alright, we just need to break the gla- _ ,” the robian was cut off as a robot claw grabbed him, slamming him and pinning him against the car's wall. An Eggman robot stared blankly at him, keeping him pinned down.  _ “Of course it couldn’t be easy...Shadow, you get them out! I’ll deal with this!” _

Sonic struggled in the robot’s grip, just managing to make out the numbers  **_‘106’_ ** painted in gold on the robot’s side.  _ “I’d love to stay and chat, but I don’t exactly feel like dying right now!”  _ the robian called as he engaged his arm cannon, preparing to blast right through his foe. Before he could shoot the train began to jerk around. The train seemed to be going at different speeds at a time, fast, slow, slower, faster, left, right. Sonic’s aim was thrown off, but so was the robot. The robian went tumbling onto the floor.

“Charles? Charles are you alright,” Sonic heard the professor calling to his uncle in concern. He looked up and saw his uncle passed out. How long had it been? How close was the bomb to going off? Sonic forced himself back onto his feet, wobbling wildly because of the swerving train. 

_ “Shadow! Can you chaos control them off the train!?”  _ Sonic called to Shadow, preparing to fire at E106 again. 

“The chaos energy has been acting strangely lately! I might not be able to send all of us!” 

_ “That’s fine! Just get those two out before they get even more hurt!”  _

“What about you!?” 

_ “I’ll make my own way out! It’ll be fine!”  _

Shadow looked like he was going to protest, before glancing back at the professors, neither in a very pretty state. Sonic seemed to be at least holding his own against E106, and realising the desperation of the situation, Shadow obliged. “If you don’t make it off this train safely, I’ll end you. CHAOS CONTROL!”

A flash of green light later, and they were gone. Just Sonic and E106 remained in the carriage. Looking around, he spotted the hatch on the roof was open, its door hanging on its hinges due to all the damage caused by the two robots fighting. Sonic fired one last shot at E106, then blasted out the hatch. He pressed his fingers to his ear to use a small communicator device that was located there as he zipped off.  _ “Nicole! The rescue is complete! Now get away from the train before it blows!” _

Sonic hovered around the train, until he got the confirmation that everyone was off. Once he knew that, he wasted no more time in getting out of there, rocketing back to Spagonia as quickly as possible, not wanting to get blown to pieces.

And someone watched him leave.

Miles away, looking down at a multitude of monitors, Dr. Eggman watches everything. Intrigued, he rewound the footage he was looking at, switching between cameras to follow Sonic. He then stopped at the footage of Sonic scratching the glass, focusing on the small plumes of violet coming from around the robian’s hands as they changed shape. "Now just what happened to you, my little runaway creation…?"

Back in Spagonia now, Sonic remained blissfully unaware of the comment that was just made about him. He had more important things to be thinking about anyway. As he paced back and forth, waiting for the authorities to be done with talking to his uncle and Prof. Pickle, Blue and Bot began to discuss with each other. Bot thought the mission had gone well. Blue thought they’d made a total fool of themselves. This back and forth continued for some time both in the form of internal thoughts and audible arguing before it was interrupted by Shadow wanting to talk to Sonic.

“Were you just arguing with yourself?” the black hedgehog frowned at the robian.

_ “Oh, that’s just a thing that happens sometimes, of course I wasn’t!”  _

Shadow frowned harder at the jumbled sentence. “That didn’t make any...Whatever. I thought you might want your ear thing back.” 

Sonic looked at the earbuds for a second. He gave a little smile and pushed the earbuds back to Shadow,  _ "You keep it. I have more."  _ And then, to justify his decision he added  _ "It could be good for your work with UF. It doesn't just work for me, so if there's any troublesome Eggman robots, you can...you know…"  _

"...Yeah." Shadow gently clenched his fingers back around the earbud that now nestled snugly in his palm. "Thanks." 

Awkwardness hung thick in the air, leaving Sonic to simply fiddle with his fingers and Shadow to fake a cough into his elbow. "I should go and see what else I'm needed for. I'll see you around, I presume?" 

Sonic nodded. With the world in shambles, anything could happen and he didn't doubt that both hedgehogs constantly being on missions with a common objective would lead to their paths crossing a number of times. 

After Shadow was gone, Sonic was simply left to wait, and so wait he did. 5-minutes of stressed pacing passed before Sally took notice of it and dragged him away from the door he had been circling back to the other Freedom Fighters, sitting patiently in Spagonia University's library. Light conversations came and went, but for the most part everyone was quiet or occupied with something else. Nicole had picked out a book and was busy studying its pages, whilst Antoine went over to talk to some of the students. After asking around for a while, he returned to where the other Freedom Fighters sat, looking disappointed. Noticing this, Sally tapped him on the shoulder, and asked if he’d like to talk to some people outside of the library. 

In another corner of a room three tables were pushed together and covered in the recovered research notes from the train they had recused both his uncle and this Professor Pickles from, along with a larger much older looking scroll that had been carefully rolled out, no papers near it. Said uncle and Professor were scanning back and forth, dancing between each other, and poor Vanni who was also there, trying to figure out where at least one temple might be hidden.

Sonic sat in his spot not too far from them, a randomly picked book on the table in front of him, Tails configuring his tablet for something he couldn’t fully understand in the next seat beside him. He fiddled with the current page he was on in boredom as he was assigned to ‘guard’ the two after Sally dragged him in.

Until he noticed a familiar black and red shape from the corner of his vision. 

He slowly turned his head to notice that it was Shadow. Didn’t he just leave about 30 minutes ago? He glanced back at the entrance that he had come in from to see Rouge enter and Omega stopped at the door, which was too small for him to enter.

“DO NOT WORRY. I WILL STAND GUARD HERE.” Omega said in his ‘normal’ voice, which was  _ very _ loud in the quiet library. Many loud SHHHs were made by the many human and mobians students.

That distraction passed, Sonic looked back at Shadow, who stood in a darker corner of the library, sharp, watchful eyes scanning the area he’d been set to guard. Many seconds went by as Sonic stared at him before eye contact was made. Shadow gave him a glare with an embarrassed blushed and mouthed a ‘not a  **_single word_ ** ’. Sonic let out a small ‘eep’ before turning back to stare at the book.  Tails, slightly spooked by the noise, looked up at him with a questioning look. “What was that noise about?”

_ “I just didn’t expect to see Shadow back here so soon,”  _ Sonic explained quickly.  _ “I thought he left.”  _

“That’s no excuse to sound like a car alarm,” Tails teased.

_ “Listen, I was just surprised!”  _

“Alright, alright!” Tails laughed. He turned back to Amy who was perched on a chair opposite him, her face buried in some kind of romance novel. He whispered something Sonic couldn’t hear, but was apparently quite funny because it made Amy giggle. When the pair noticed Sonic staring at them with a quizzical expression, they smiled innocently at him, clearly not about to let him in on whatever joke they’d been making.

The trio had to look back at the door due to the commotion of one too large for the door robot still blocking the door and a bat telling him to move while somehow pushing him out of the way, letting the students who wanted to come and go again. This also let Sally and Antione to come back into the library and head over to them.

“Did you find anything out?” Amy asked Antoine softly.

“Non. No one knows anything. How is it going with ze professors?” 

“Once the UF finished questioning them, they came in here. They’re still trying to decipher the old maps, I think because there’s books that can help?” Amy took a glance at the tables that stood on the other side of the library. “It can’t be easy, being under all that pressure...and with all those guards leaning over them too!”

_ “At least they actually  _ **_are_ ** _ guarded now,”  _ Sonic looked at Vanni saltily. The rabbit had made a quick flight over when she’d heard she was needed.  _ “We already heard that the temporary team we put together got overwhelmed by a diversion, a massive badnik horde. But where was  _ **_she_ ** _ when that all went down?”  _ He took another brief glance, unable to draw his eyes away from the rabbit’s cybernetic ears, gleaming amber in the late afternoon sun.  _ “She’s ex-Egg Legion, right?”  _

“Don’t go there!” Amy scolded. “Or you two are gonna end up like Julie-Su and Vector! And we all know how poorly those two used to get along.”

_ “I’m not accusing her of anything!”  _ Sonic protested.  _ “I’m just saying it’s suspicious.”  _

Sonic was suddenly bopped on the head with a book, he grabbed at the spot where he’d just been bonked and turned to see his uncle with a stern look, “You shouldn’t think that. She went through a lot just to get out of the legion and to get here. Imagine all she had lost and left behind,” Chuck looked over to the rabbit, who seemed to be getting a bit impatient with the old men, and was walking over to see what everyone else was talking about. “I found her outside the city in shambles… that kind of emotion is just something you can’t fake.” 

_ “Where was she when you were kidnapped then?”  _

“That, I don’t know.” Chuck admitted. “But Vanni said she had something important to do and I trust that.” 

“It was important,” the rabbit confirmed as she gave the papers to Chuck. “Real important. I was...I was looking for someone.” 

“See, Sonic?” Amy said sweetly. “Nothing to worry about!” 

Sonic let out a small apology which Vanni gratefully accepted. When that was all done, Chuck gave everyone some news they’d all been dying to hear. “If you want to come over to our research table, we’ve actually figured out where we think the first temple is, and it’s a lot closer than we were expecting.”

“Awesome! Let’s go!” Amy cried.

“No, not today.” Chuck shook his head. “It’ll be getting dark soon, and you’ve all had a long day. You can sleep here, I’ve cleared it out with everyone.” 

“We’ve already rested!” Sally protested. “In the library. We used to work at night all the time, we can handle it!”

“The nights aren’t normal at the moment though, are they?” Chuck said firmly. “With all those monsters creeping around. The planet can wait a few more hours.”

And slowly, reluctantly, the Freedom Fighters agreed. They would set off at sunrise tomorrow. 

  
  



	3. Waves of Change

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The search for the Gaia temples begins!

After every one of the Freedom Fighters, with the exception of Sonic, had gone off to the provided dorm rooms to sleep, Sonic was left to think on a bench inside the main hall - after being kicked out of the library due to it being closed to everyone but select few students and the professors. He leaned back on the bench, staring at the ceiling, for a while too, the few students and staff going by this late at night giving him questioning glances.

Meanwhile, inside the cyberspace that was his brain the two hims were staring at each other.

“... _ So, _ ” Bot mumbled, his cyborg-like body had sat down, facing Blue, who was also sitting down, a chao in his lap, crossing his arms with a very angry and red muzzle left over from blushing.

“I’m going to come out and say it first: What the heck was that all about!?” Blue yelled, causing Bot to flinch. “I get that you got hooked on the same feelings I already had on Stripes, but still that was  _ embarrassing _ !”   
  
“ _ You’re telling this to me now!? You never thought to tell me we have feelings for someone before? _ ” Bot yelled back, Blue’s momentum of anger cut off causing him to look at Bot confused, “ _ Seriously? What else are you going to forget to tell me?”  _ Bot threw his arms up in the air in frustration, “ _ and what about the whole thing on the train!”  _ Bot pointed at Blue, “ _ you got so frustrated that the nanites went ballistic for some reason and made our arms change into those HUGE claws!” _

Bot brought up a screen next to him showing a first person view of the claws, “ _ and look! That smokey, sparky stuff showed up too, we  _ **_really_ ** _ need to talk to someone about it, I’m surprised Uncle Chuck didn’t say anything about it!” _   


“We’re fine! It went away after a bit, like you said it was probably the nanites being weird for some reason!” Blue did his own arm throw, though not as angry looking as Titan the chao was standing up and patting Blue with a concerned look. 

The two glared at each other for a while before just mirroring a groan and falling onto their backs. 

"What  _ are  _ we going to do with ourselves?" Blue groaned. "Caught up in feelings with a body that's mutating at its own accord!" 

_ "Well, it's easy! We just confess to Shadow and talk to Uncle Chuck!"  _

"No! No, we can't!"

_ "Why not?" _

"I don't want to stress Uncle Chuck out any more, he doesn't need that," Blue explained. "And as for Shadow? I-I mean, before I barely had a chance and now? He's not going to want a robot with a fractured mind!" 

Bot drew his legs closer to him, as if to get away from Blue, looking hurt.  _ "You...You don't know that. Uhh...look at Mum and Dad! They still get along fine enough!" _

"Yeah but that's different," Blue groaned. "They were already married for years when the whole roboticizer thing came along."

_ "Ok, but-" _

"No buts!" Blue objected. "Look, I just think it's better if we don't risk it. Rejection is heavy, I can tell you that much. Besides, it'll be a distraction to what matters right now, which is fixing the planet." 

Titan scowled at Blue, and jabbed his leg, annoyed by the hedgehog's pessimism. "I'm gonna go somewhere else." Blue gently shook the chao off of his leg, then started to walk off in some random direction. Bot watched him go but didn't say anything, not in the mood to talk to the other hedgehog right now. So stubborn. 

Without any conversation however, Bot became aware of someone calling them in the physical world after a while. He hesitated for a second, fully aware that without Blue's presence he could become a bit scatter-brained, but eventually decided it'd be fine. Blue hadn't gone far after all.

"LITTLE ONE?" 

Green eyes glowed and settled on the large form of E123 Omega.  _ "I'm not so sure about 'little'. I think I'm probably older than you." _

"YOUR BODY IS MUCH SMALLER THAN MINE AND YOU HAVE NOT EXISTED IN YOUR CURRENT FORM FOR AS LONG." Omega sat awkwardly on the floor, next to the bench that Sonic was sat on. 

_ "Are you also really bored?" _

"YES. I CRAVE TOMORROW'S DESTRUCTION. WAITING FOR IT IS TEDIOUS. I DO NOT WANT TO BOTHER YOU HOWEVER. IF YOU WANT TO GO BACK TO YOUR SLEEP MODE THAT IS FINE."

_ "Oh, that wasn't a sleep mode. I was just struggling with some internal conflict." _

"WHAT IS THIS INTERNAL CONFLICT YOU SPEAK OF. MAYBE I CAN ASSIST." Omega offered.

_ "I suppose it's just a case of self-doubt."  _ Sonic confessed, thinking of Blue and his attitude. Inside the mindscape, said hedgehog crept closer to the screen, taking notice of the conversation.  _ "Over this whole robot thing." _

"I WOULD NOT VIEW IT AS A BAD THING. YOU HAVE NEW ADVANTAGES THAT YOUR FRIENDS LACK. YOU ARE STRONG, DURABLE AND RELENTLESS. I WOULD EVEN SAY YOU HAVE RECEIVED AN UPGRADE FROM YOUR INFERIOR ORGANIC BODY BUT ROUGE WOULD LIKELY TELL ME THAT THAT IS AN INSENSITIVE THING TO SAY SO I WILL NOT TELL YOU THAT."

Blue took more control now, with Bot watching closely.  _ "Those things don't make me feel good though. They make me feel distant and separate to all my friends. I dunno...you say I can do things they can't but equally they can do things that I can't and it makes me feel so...so angry!"  _ Sonic gripped the sides of the bench tightly.  _ "And then that makes me feel guilty because I  _ **_know_ ** _ it was this or doom the entire world, but I still just wish this had never happened!" _

Omega listened patiently to Sonic's venting, taking it all in. It was making  _ him  _ angry too, listening to this poor kid, hearing the ways in which Eggman hurt him. 

"SONIC. I DO NOT UNDERSTAND YOUR STRUGGLES WITH YOUR FRIENDS BUT I DO UNDERSTAND YOUR ANGER. YOU ARE ANGRY AT THE DOCTOR. EGGMAN. OUR CREATOR. WHATEVER YOU WISH TO CALL HIM. YOU NEED TO CHANNEL THAT ANGER. USE IT AS A MOTIVATOR! THINK ABOUT EVERYTHING THAT MAN HAS DONE TO YOU AND USE THAT DESTRUCTIVE ENERGY TO DESTROY HIS EMPIRE!"

_ “But,” _ Sonic started, thinking of the strange claw mutations from the train.  _ “What if I get too angry? What if I get so angry, that I hurt my friends?” _ The robian growled in frustration,  _ "Why does everything have to be so complicated?”  _ Taking Omega's silence as confusion, Sonic added some context.  _ "When I was on that train earlier, I sort of...blacked out and started clawing the glass down. I didn't even realise what I was doing until Shadow stepped in to stop me."  _

"YOU GREW CLAWS?" 

_ "Yeah. My body's full of nanites, which I can usually control. But I didn't make them do that, it just happened!" _

"THAT SOUNDS IRREGULAR." Omega stated. "PERHAPS YOU ARE MALFUNCTIONING. I WOULD RECOMMEND SEEING A MECHANIC ABOUT THAT."

“ _ No, I can’t. I don’t want to bring more stress onto Uncle Chuck and the others. They have so much to worry about, I can’t pile my stuff onto that. For all I know, I just lost my temper. I can't disrupt their work over something as small as that."  _

Omega said nothing for a bit, leaning in as studied Sonic carefully with round, red eyes. Sonic leaned into the bench more as he twiddled his thumbs nervously.

"YOU ARE NOT MAKING MUCH SENSE. YOU FEAR THESE MALFUNCTIONS AND YET YOU ALSO INSIST THAT THEY ARE NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT. WHY DO YOU DISAGREE WITH YOURSELF SO HEAVILY?" 

_ "I don't know." _

"COULD IT BE THAT THERE IS MORE THAN ONE OF YOU? TWO CONFLICTING PROGRAMS OR AI?" 

_ "Wha- How did you-"  _ Sonic 'squinted' at Omega, stunned by how easily he figured the robian out.

"I TOO, AM COMPRISED OF TWO COMPONENTS."

_ “How do you deal with there being two of you?” _

“I DO NOT.”

_ “What? But then why did you-”  _ Sonic didn’t even get the chance to finish his confused sentence as Omega cut him off with an explanation.

“E102 GAMMA UPLOADED A LARGE AMOUNT OF HIS AI AND CODE INTO ME BEFORE HE WAS DESTROYED. IT COMBINED WITH WHAT I ALREADY HAD AND MADE ME WHO I AM NOW.”

_ “Yeah, that’s not what’s happening to me. I got split in half, to put it simply.”  _ Sonic explained, trying not to sound annoyed but also deeply fed up with having to explain this repeatedly.  _ “And we don’t always agree on things.”  _

“I CAN TELL.” Omega said bluntly. “YOU TWO BOTH HAVE VERY DIFFERENT IDEAS AND CAN’T SEEM TO SETTLE ON ONE.”

Sonic sighed synthetically,  _ “You really think I should tell someone?” _

"IT SEEMS TO BE TROUBLING YOU, SO YES." 

Sonic sat there for a moment, thinking. If it was a troubling issue, then he should definitely talk to at least Uncle Chuck about it. The robian then nodded with determination, “ _ Ok, I’ll talk to Uncle Chuck in the morning and get this sorted out _ .”

"GOOD. I HOPE YOU ARE ABLE TO FIX THE PLANET TOO."

_ “Thank you,” _ Sonic paused for a moment before speaking again,  _ “Do you think you can keep this conversation between us? I don’t normally talk about my personal issues that much.” _

“OK. I WILL NOT SAY A WORD TO SHADOW OR ANY OF THE OTHERS.” 

Sonic nodded passively.  _ "Thank you-"  _ The words stopped before he could let them out. In saying them, he would surely be acknowledging himself as an Eggman robot, an Eggman  _ creation  _ as wrong as that description was. But he thought it might please Omega, and so he said it anyway.  _ "-Big brother." _

________________________________________________________

The morning was a pretty 'get up and go' one, as was to be expected. At what felt like the crack of dawn, Sally woke everyone up, told them to get dressed and headed down to the library. They met Sonic on the way there, who was a lot more peppy than his tired teammates.

Down in the library, it seemed that Charles had woken even earlier than the Freedom Fighters and was busy peering over the ancient maps, followed by a bleary-eyed Vanni. Sonic readied himself. When all the talking was done, he was going to linger behind for a second and talk about woes. Easy as that.

But something seemed to stop him. Bot seemed… nervous, concerned and worried. What if it’s not the right time to tell them? When else would he get the chance?

"So, from what we've interpreted of the maps, you're going to want to look around the neighbouring city, Meropis." Chuck explained. "These marks are old, made a long time before this planet got the way it is, so I can't give you anything very specific, but if you ask around with the locals, I'm sure  _ someone _ will know."

"That's probably not a seven man job, is it?" Sally murmured to herself.

"What are you thinking, Sally?" Nicole inquired.

"I'm saying we don't have much time, so maybe it would be better if we split up. Some of us look for temples, others for emeralds."

"That makes sense!" Amy agreed. "I call going to Meropis!" 

"Yeah, you're a strong swimmer. Rotor too." Sally pondered for a second. "So how's this? Amy, Rotor and...Sonic will go look for the temple."

_ "What!? Why me!?"  _ Sonic protested.

"Because in the worst case scenario, you're less likely to drown." Sally said. Sonic's pupils narrowed but he didn't say anything - she had a point. Sure, he did draw in oxygen to use as energy in normal circumstances, so being in the water would affect that, but he could probably last longer on backup power than any of his friends could hold their breaths.

That being said, he still wasn't very pleased with his assignment.

"The rest of us can start this emerald hunt," Sally continued. "I want to go back to the Sky Patrol so we can run some scans that'll hopefully bring us closer to finding them." 

"Sounds like a plan," Tails agreed.

"Well, what're we waiting for!?" Amy exclaimed. "Off to Meropis we go!" 

Sonic's feet remained firmly planted on the ground. He needed to talk about having absorbed those samples, like he said he would. Unfortunately, Amy was growing a little impatient. "Come on scaredy-hog, we haven't got all day!"

Sonic took one last reluctant glance back at his Uncle, before giving in. The talk could wait another day or two, surely? Sonic caught up with Rotor and Amy, deciding that he would just have to do it when he got back.

The descent down onto the beach was a calm one, externally at least. Internally, Sonic's aquaphobia was going haywire, but the others didn't need to know that. They'd decided to head down onto one of the less tourist-y beaches, one that was rockier, smaller and nestled firmly in a crag between two steep walls of rock. A hassle for any holiday makers to get to, but perfectly fine for a group of Freedom Fighters.

Rotor was running scans for any nearby structures that might be potential temples, whilst Sonic and Amy had grown bored of looking at graphs they didn't understand and were skimming stones.

_ "Remind me why we're waiting around here?"  _ Sonic asked as he flung another stone out onto the choppy waves.  _ "I thought the temple was supposed to be in the water."  _

"That's the problem, Sonic," Rotor sighed. "The area marked on the map only gives us an extremely rough idea of where these things are. We could be standing on top of it, or it could be ten miles from here. No one actually knows."

_ "So you're telling me it might not even be here, and might actually just be up some hill on the outskirts of Spagonia then?"  _

"That is a slight possibility," Rotor admitted. "But the reason everyone's been thinking it's down here is because the inhabitants of Spagonia have never seen anything like one. You'd have thought that if there was one around there, then they'd know about it, right?"

_ "I gue-" _

"Guys, shhhhh!" Amy shushed her friends then cupped her hands around her ears as though she was listening for something. "Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"The music!" Amy ran off to where there appeared to be an opening in the ground, like the small beginning of a cave tunnel. "Hello? I really like your song! Do you think you could help us?"

"Oh gosh- Is that- Are you- Are you Sonic the Hedgehog?" A small voice trailed up from out the whole, echoing on its way up.

"I'm not, but Sonic's with us! We're part of the Freedom Fighters!"

"...Stay there. I'll send someone to bring you down."

_ "Oh good,  _ more  _ waiting." _

"Sonic!" Amy snapped in a harsh whisper. "You better not be so rude when they get here!"

Luckily for Sonic, the wait was not overly long. Ten minutes of bored pacing later, and they were greeted by the sight of a stranger emerging from the sea. A blue-grey shark, accompanied by a dark chao emerged from the sunset stained waves. "So, you're who I was sent to fetch, huh?"

"I guess so!" Amy nodded. "If that singing voice sent you, then yes. I'm Amy, and this is Sonic and Rotor!"

"My name's Razor and I'm the protector of the Eusebes shri- Crusher no!" Razor scolded his chao, who had been suspiciously investigating Sonic, then decided to try and take a bite out of him. The attempt was successful but only caused the robian to stare at the chao, who was barely making a dent in his metal leg. In his mind Bot gave Titan a somewhat confused and worried glance. ‘Crusher’s’ tirade to Sonic’s leg was cut short as Amy pulled the chao off and placed them back down. After giving a glare at the unruly chao Razor continued, "Anyway, I take it that you guys are the 'Great Heroes' the Priestess told me about?" 

"Well, we have saved the world a few times...Is that a qualifier?" Rotor asked.

"Probably. Alright, I'll take you down," Razor reached into a pouch on his belt and pulled out what looked like necklaces out. "These are air charms. They'll help you breathe underwater." 

He shot an odd gaze at Sonic. "You're probably going to want to take that armour off."

"Oh that's not armour!" Amy informed. "That's just what his body is like!"

To demonstrate her point, Sonic slid back a panel on his wrist to reveal the circuitry inside. Razor stared, a little dumbfounded for a moment, before seemingly shaking it off, “I take it you won’t be needing a charm then?” Razor asked with a hint of confusion in his voice.

“He still breathes,” Razor gave Rotor a confused look, “Don’t ask, it’s confusing on its own, I have no idea how pure oxygen can be transferred into energy, but we should take one for him just in case.”

Sonic nodded in agreement and took an Air Charm from Razor, “Quiet guy, aren’t you?” 

_ “Yeah right.”  _ Sonic beeped, causing another wave of confusion from Razor.

“You’re a very weird lot, even for surface walkers, you know that?” He turned tail and began to walk into the sea. “Come, I’ll take you to the Priestess.” 

Sonic, Amy and Rotor followed Razor and Crusher’s lead into the ocean, sticking closely behind the shark so they didn’t get lost. Amy and Rotor seemed to be enjoying the spectacle and wonder of it all, but Sonic wasn’t so pleased. Unable to swim, he was stuck following the others along the seabed, and it was not at all a fun experience. He thought not being able to run had made him painfully slow, but he decided that this was way worse.

Thankfully, the journey wasn't terribly long, so give or take 20 and they arrived. Amy and Rotor's heads burst from the surface of a small pool into an enclosed cave area, consisting of some kind of shrine and what appeared to be a chao garden. 

"Coral! Coral, they're here!" A young voice squeaked excitedly. A grey manta ray, probably no older than Cream dragged an older fish, an orange betta, towards their guests. 

"Are you by any chance, Sonic the Hedgehog?" The older fish, Coral, inquired, pointing at Amy.

"Oh no, that's not me!" Amy laughed. "He'll be arriving any minute."

Right on cue, Sonic cambered out of the pool in an extremely awkward and undignified position, and lay down in the sand, recovering from the stress of being underwater,  _ "That was the woooorst…"  _ the robian complained.  _ "I never wanna do that again…" _

"He says it's nice to meet you!" Amy said with a smile. "What's your name?" 

"My name is Coral, and this is Pearly, my apprentice," The older fish explained. "I hope you didn't have any troubles on your way here?" 

"None at all," Razor confirmed. "How were things at the shrine?"

"Aquarius went into her cocoon, no problems." Coral replied.

"Aquarius is a really important chao!" Pearly explained, seeing the newcomers confusion.

“ _ This one doesn’t bite, does it? _ ” Sonic asked as Crusher began biting his arm this time.The other chao from around the garden came over and started investigating him too, but in a much more friendly but cautious manner. Sonic seemed to calm down as their curiosity faded, and one of them got brave enough to nuzzle him a little. 

As Sonic sat up and eased himself away from the pool and onto drier land, Pearly caught sight of his face. She gasped, then turned to loudly whisper "he doesn't have any eyes!" to Coral.

Sonic ‘blinked’ a couple of times, making his round pupils change from ovals to arches, to demonstrate that he still had eyes in a sense. Pearly edged a bit closer to the robian, studying him carefully with big, round eyes. “Can you see?” the child inquired naively. Sonic nodded. He’d heard that Eggman hadn’t taken many aquatic mobians prisoner when he first took over, barely knowing of the existence of the hidden underwater, but it never occurred to him that he’d meet someone who had never seen a robian or a cyborg - he supposed it’d just been normalised to him. Still, he supposed it wasn’t a bad thing, he’d much rather be regarded with cautious curiosity than suspicious glances. 

“I’m so glad you came!” Coral said excitedly. “When the spirits first told me your names, I wasn’t entirely sure what they meant, but now I understand!” 

“...Spirits?” Amy frowned. 

“The ones who sent you!” 

“We actually came here to find a-” Rotor started to explain, before Amy elbowed him.

“We weren’t sent here by any spirits, but if you need help with something, I’m sure we can lend you a hand!”

“B-But they said that you were...Oh...And with everything else that’s been going wrong...I-” Coral stuttered.

“Hey,” Razor placed a hand on her shoulder. “You should get some sleep, it’s getting late. You Freedom Fighters should rest too. We’ll all just...figure this out tomorrow when we’re not tired and there aren’t monsters coming for us.”

“Monsters?” Rotor questioned.

“Have you not seen them?” Razor looked surprised. “They’re these big glow-y things that come out at night. People are saying they’re connected to an ancient dark god.” 

The three Freedom Fighters all exchanged concerned looks, but said nothing. It  _ was  _ getting late, and Amy and Rotor were tired out. So though everyone had things to do, they all agreed it could wait until the morning. 

Once everyone else was asleep, Sonic let himself relax, leaning against the wall of the deep cavern, observing the shrine. Could it really be a Gaia temple? It sure looked old and impressive enough. It seemed so peaceful too, a nice break from the chaotic outside world. But in observing the temple’s silence, he also became aware of one small sound - the tiny pitter-patter of footsteps.

Sonic got up from where he sat, curious as to who that could be. A restless chao perhaps? He turned a corner to peer around the side of the temple only to discover not a restless chao, but Pearly, pacing back and forth nervously. 

“Aah!” The child recoiled as she saw two glowing green eyes coming at her from the darkness. “S-Stay back, Gaia spawn!” 

Sonic did not stay back, getting closer instead, so that Pearly could see that she wasn’t in any real danger. “O-Oh phew! It’s just you!” 

Sonic wanted to ask her why she was awake, and outside the shrine, but of course she wouldn't be able to understand him. Sighing internally, he decided to leave the kid to whatever she was doing. Much to Sonic’s surprise however, Pearly nervously followed him as he went back to where he had been sitting. Sonic motioned for the manta ray to stay where she was sitting, and ran off to grab an earphone from Rotor’s stuff. He brought it back quickly, and dropped it into Pearly’s hands. She frowned, unsure of what to do with it. Sonic pointed to his ear and she understood.

_ "Hello." _

"You can talk!" Pearly gasped, eyes sparkling. "Hello!"

_ "If you don't mind me asking, why are you awake?"  _ Sonic tried to sound gentle, not wanting to sound like he was scolding the kid.

"I'm scared...I don't want the monsters to get into the shrine…" 

_ "Oh. Well you don't need to worry about that! Me, Amy and Rotor will keep you safe!"  _

"Really?" Pearly looked up at the much taller robian.

_ "Yeah!"  _ Sonic wondered how he could add some reassurance.  _ "Wanna see something cool?"  _ He rearranged the nanites on his arm into his arm into the cannon, and allowed it to let off a little spark.

"Woah!" The manta ray gasped, before processing what she just saw. "What  _ are  _ you?"

Well that was a hard question to answer, and it didn't help that both Blue and Bot had two different responses. He sat in silence for a period of time before eventually blurting out  _ "A robian hedgehog!" _

"A robian?" 

_ "A roboticized mobian. Ummm...Someone who wasn't always a robot, but got turned into one."  _ He tried to make it as simple as he could, unsure of how crazy the idea would sound to someone who hadn't ever heard of the idea before.

Pearly seemed to get it, but had another question. "Why did you get turned into a robian?" 

_ "Well, robians were invented to save people's lives, but it was Eggman who got me. He wanted to make me work for him."  _

Pearly noticeably flinched at the mention of the name Eggman, looking uncomfortable after hearing it.

_ "You've heard of Eggman, then?"  _

"Razor thinks he's the one that made the sea go all bad."

_ "Wait...what?" _

"The sea went all bad...it made it hard to swim and a lot of people got sick," Pearly looked like she was about to cry, but didn't, managing to hold back her tears. "But it's ok, because Razor and Coral take good care of me now."

Trying not to flare up with anger at the implication that Eggman caused an outbreak that potentially killed people, Sonic asked another question.  _ "Do you like it here?"  _

"Yeah! I like learning from Coral a-and Aquarius isn't as scary as other chao when you get to know her…" 

_ "You're scared of chao?"  _ Sonic asked. He'd never met anyone that was before, but thinking of the numerous times Crusher had tried to bite him today he decided that wasn't too unreasonable.

"Well yeah! They're so creepy! But Aquarius is nice, which is good because she's a special chao...I think the proper word is sacred? I'm going to look after her when I've done all my training." Pearly seemed enthusiastic, and a lot calmer than she had been when Sonic first spoke to her. She yawned, tired. 

_ "Do you think you should go to sleep now?"  _

"What about you?" Pearly yawned. 

_ "I don't need sleep, but you certainly do."  _ He helped her to her feet.  _ "I'll take you back inside the shrine, so you're safe from the monsters, ok?" _

"Ok…" Pearly followed him inside. Once inside, she fell asleep almost immediately. Judging by how tired she was, Sonic wondered if her troubles sleeping were reoccurring, brought on not only by the monsters, but also the dark energy altering people's moods. 

As Pearly drifted into an easy, dreamless sleep, the power gem on Sonic's back glowed purple again, a little brighter now. He didn't notice it though, and went back to where he'd been sitting, blissfully ignorant.

And if that glow did mean something, it certainly didn’t mean anything tonight. The rest of the night passed without any troubles, no monsters, no disturbances, no nothing. 

Amy and Rotor slept in when the morning came to the underground temple. Whether they were intentionally rolling over and going back to sleep or simply just not waking up because the past few days had them so worn out, Sonic didn’t know. He had a feeling it was the latter though, so he let them have some well deserved rest.

When they did eventually wake up, the morning was slow and relaxed. Rotor began to investigate the shrine, with Sonic and Amy helping, whilst Razor tended to the chao, with Pearly watching from a distance. Coral, meanwhile, had hurried herself deeply in her Priestess work, and hadn't been seen all morning. 

"It certainly seems old enough to be one of the temples we're looking for," Rotor observed. "These scans would indicate that it goes right back to the 'Earth days'. But we also know that there were many gods that people built places similar to this for over the course of history."

_ "Is there any way we can figure out if it's a Gaia one or not?"  _ Sonic asked.

"Well, I'd need to get right into the heart of the shrine, but we'll have to wait until Coral's done with whatever she's doing in there."

"She said she'd be finished soon, so I wouldn't worry about that too much!" Amy chipped in positively. 

_ "..."  _ Sonic listened carefully.  _ "Do you guys hear crying, or is that just me?"  _

Amy and Rotor listened out, and agreed. "We should see if Coral's ok, right?" Rotor stared hesitantly into the shrine's entrance. 

_ "Right!"  _ Sonic strided right past his friends and into the Shrine. Coral was on her hands and knees, shaking and distraught. She kept looking up at what appeared to be a chao cocoon on a pedestal, then back down at the floor. 

"What did you do to her!?" Before Sonic got the opportunity to try and find out more, Razor rushed towards him. Sonic found himself with a sword pointed at his throat - a bit redundant, but he still didn't appreciate the hostility. 

"I-It's Aquarius," Coral sobbed. "She has- she hasn't reincarnated…She- She- She should've hatched by now..."

"How big of a deal is that?" Rotor caught up with the others and dipped into the conversation. 

Razor looked as though he was trying his best to maintain his composure, but wasn't doing the best job. "The sacred chao is vital to a lot of the rites that are performed he-"

"Sonic!? Razor!? Anyone!? We could really use some help out here!" Amy's voice echoed down into the shrine. 

"Why, what's-" Razor cut himself off as he saw the situation at hand. Climbing out of the pool that led to the ocean came many fish mobians, all wearing armour, many of them armed. Sonic and Rotor came rushing out too, on edge and ready for trouble.

"How  _ dare  _ you land-walkers trespass on sacred ground!" A red mantis shrimp, who Sonic assumed must've had some important title, judging by how he wore some kind of cape instead of the standard uniform all the other guards wore, stood only inches away from them - and he certainly wasn't happy about it.

"G-Good morning, Captain Striker," Coral stepped out of the shrine, still rubbing her eyes from all of the tears. "No one here is trespassing, I gave them permission to enter the grounds." 

"But you did so without getting royal permission," Striker hissed. "Surely that still counts as trespassing."

"Wha- Royal permission!?" Razor snapped in disbelief. "Since when have the King and Queen ever decided what goes on in the shrine!?"

“Since she started letting in whoever she feels like apparently!” Striker snapped back, equally as aggressive. “She should’ve consulted someone before letting them in.”

“I-I would’ve, Captain, but the curfew...It was too late for me to get to the city when they got here,” Coral desperately tried to explain.

"Why not just tell them to wait until you could've gotten permission then?" Striker challenged, before one of the guards gave him a stern stare. "...It doesn't matter now. You  _ and  _ the trespassers are wanted by the King and Queen immediately."

"T-The shrine shouldn't be left unattended at any point in time," Coral murmured meekly as Striker grew closer, looking more and more aggressive.

"Your apprentice can stay to watch over it then. I'll set a guard to make sure she doesn't try anything."

"Try anything!?" Razor was in a state of pure outrage and disbelief. "She's  _ seven _ !" 

"I'll be staying here too, if you don't mind Captain," Rotor stated. "I need rest...all this swimming...no good for my back." 

_ "And because we're on a time crunch, and you can keep investigating the temple whilst we're gone, right?"  _ Sonic speculated with a knowing grin.

"Of course," Rotor replied.

"What was that?" Striker growled suspiciously. 

"He was just saying that he's proud of me for taking care of myself." Rotor smiled at Striker, trying to look as innocent as possible.

"Hmph. Fine. There's no point in taking you if you're unfit to go," The captain agreed. "But the rest of you are coming with me."

Sonic made a condescending salute as he, Amy, Razor and Coral followed the guards, after all being equipped with air charms. The journey into central Meropis was worse than the way to the shrine, in Sonic's opinion. It was one thing to be slowly making your way along the bottom of the sea with friends but it was a hundred times worse to do it with an entire city and several angry guards watching you go. He wished he'd stayed with Rotor; it wasn't like he could actually 'speak' with these people anyway. 

As the group of four stood before the monarchs, Sonic officially decided he should've stayed back at the shrine. It was made abundantly clear right away that these two were not exactly the reasonable sort. King Puff and Queen Angelica were their names, and they were certainly not as willing to listen to reason as Sonic had hoped. The King was acting like a child that lost their toy, completely outraged by the ordeal, whilst the Queen simply seemed unwilling to listen to reason.

"For the Gods sake, Coral," Angelica muttered, after far too much back and forth for such a small situation, head in one hand. "This is completely unacceptable. You had better have some good news to balance this all out at the very least. How goes Aquarius?"

"S-She's taking longer than usual to re-reincarnate, b-b-but-" Coral stammered, the poor girl practically unable to speak from all the scorn she was getting. 

"First you botch a rite so badly it shatters land, then you invite surface walkers down, and now the sacred chao hasn't reincarnated!?" Puff cried in fury.

"The spirits told me to bring these heroes down h-here, I-I think maybe they'll help me with Aquarius...I don’t know, I-I-I just need a little more time to figure it all out-"

"Wait wait wait!" Amy interrupted. "You guys think  _ Coral  _ had something to do with the planet breaking!? That was Dr. Eggman!"

"Well, I won't deny that the Doctor is a madman," Angelica agreed. "But he would not shatter the planet on purpose. He wants to rule it, does he not?"

"It's true!" Amy objected. "The researches have figured out that when he altered time, he sped up the awakening of Dark Gaia! And he must've planned for this, because I've been in contact with the rest of my team, and he's already looking for the Chaos Emeralds, the things that can fix the planet, so no one can get them!"

"What an absolute load of rubbish…" Angelica drawled, looking thoroughly unimpressed. "Altering time to awaken deities? Please, how could anyone be capable of something like that?"

_ "You've got no idea what Eggman can do!"  _ Sonic snapped. He knew they couldn't hear, but he had to let it all out.  _ "Because you all stayed down here in your safe, sheltered little city, whilst the rest of us fought for years! He's capable of madness well beyond your comprehension!" _

"S-Sonic- Your-" Amy pointed to the gem on Sonic's back, now glinting a dark indigo, but Sonic didn't stop.

_ "We're trying to help you!  _ Coral  _ is trying to help you! But we can't do any of that if you don't stop being so closed minded!" _

"Would you please quieten your...metal thing, girl," Angelica sighed at Amy. "It's rather annoying." 

_ "I'm a perso-" _

"Y-Your Highnessess," Amy stepped in before Sonic could get any angrier. "I know you didn't hear him, but Sonic has a point. All we want to do is help, same for Coral and Razor too, right?" The two aquatic mobians in question nodded.

"Help!? All you've done is made things worse!" Puff accused. " _ You  _ especially, Priestess! You have completely failed the city!"

"If only our dear daughter wasn't abroad," Angelica said absent-minded. "She studied the shrine's rites too, and could easily take her place as Priestess." 

"But that doesn't mean we can't find another suitable replacement," Puff stated. "Coral, for failing to adequately perform your duties and committing an act of treason, you are hereby stripped of your title!"

"You will have to stay in the shrine tonight though," Angelica sighed. "Your friend too - The curfew is coming. You are expected to have vacated by morning."

The group of four stood for a solid few seconds, not knowing what to think. Sonic was angry, Coral was stressing, Razor felt oddly numb and Amy was desperately trying to think of the right words of comfort. Slowly, awkwardly, they slipped back into the outside of the underwater city, back to the shrine. 

No one said a word, not even when they got there. 

All they could do is sit and wait for… well anything. Sonic sat on a rock in a huff as Amy went to inform Rotor the situation. Razor paced back and forth relentlessly. Coral sat, facing the stone walls. 

Rotor was not too pleased once he'd been informed of the situation. "Dammit," he whispered, not wanting to upset Coral or Razor any more. "A lot of my tests show that this  _ is  _ a Gaia temple. We can't fix the planet if they kick us out." 

_ "There's got to be something we can do to prove it, right?"  _ Sonic pondered.  _ "Something that we can use to prove that this isn't Coral's fault."  _

"There's not much we can show them to prove that time got messed up," Rotor sighed. "And we've got nothing concrete on Eggman's involvement."

_ "What about me then!? I'm living proof, in a way!"  _

"Yeah, but given how lost the concept of robians seems to be on people down here, I'm not sure they'd believe us," Even the usually bubbly Amy sounded deflated. "H-Hey, Sonic, I'm sorry for butting in earlier-"

_ "It's alright. I mean, I don't like that you did it, but it was the right thing to do,"  _ Sonic admitted.  _ "It just...it just hurt me a lot, what they were saying. I-I-I...Pull yourself together! I already find myself doubting myself over this whole thing without interference. I don't need to be treated like an inanimate object on top of that." _

"Mmm. Don't forget the constant mood swings from Dark Gaia at night, too," Rotor lay down on his back. "Those can't be helping either."

Sonic was about to agree, when he was distracted by a weird glow in the pool that led into the shrine's cavern. Big, distorted patches of pink and purple dotted the pool, like overgrown ink blots.

Coral had noticed too, and looked incredibly distressed. "Oh no, no, no, no, no-" She was muttering to herself, standing up now, back pressed against the wall.

"What is it!?" Amy called, readying both herself and her hammer for the worst.

"The city's shields-" Coral breathed. "The ones that were keeping the spawn out...I was supposed to be keeping them up, but they've been growing weaker lately and now-"

The water rippled violently, the glowing patches growing larger and larger. Whatever was down there was growing closer. Everyone was aware of it now though - the air buzzed with apprehension. Everyone was ready to go, and then-

"GO!" Amy yelled, as the first monster slithered out of the pool. She whacked it over the head with her hammer, and it dissolved into a fine, violet mist. 

**_"That was like what came out of us…back on the train…"_ ** Bot realised, but he didn't have time to think on that, because more monsters were clambering into the cavern. Thinking fast, he decided his cannon wouldn’t be the best thing to use in an enclosed area; as an alternative, he went for a good old homing attack, beating the Gaia spawn into nothing more than vapour. 

Rotor was punching at them too, nanite suit fully activated and Razor was swiping at them with a dagger of some kind. It wasn’t long before the cavern was all cleared, but no one dared relax. “That won’t have held them off for long,” Razor remarked. “Coral, can you  _ please _ try those rites again? If you can get the shield back up, it’ll stop any more of the spawn from getting in.”

The betta took a deep breath, trying to rid herself of panic. “Alright. I’ll try again.”

“Wait, if that shield covered the whole city, surely it’s going to be overrun with the Gaia spawn too?” Rotor realised. 

“Yes...it will be…” Coral began to look panicked again.

Noticing this, Rotor swept up the air charms and handed one to Sonic. “Not to worry then. Sonic and I are on the case!” 

Sonic complained a little, but dropped into the water alongside Rotor nonetheless. He’d been right - the city was in a bad state. The Meropis Guard were doing what they could, but there were a lot more monsters than there were guards. Sonic and Rotor exchanged worried glances before getting to work. The monsters went down fairly easily, a strong punch or a quick homing attack was enough to reduce them to clouds, but they had another advantage. No matter how many monsters they defeated, more kept coming. More and more and more. Sonic couldn’t help but feel like this whole thing was becoming futile - was that really him talking or was the dark energy getting to him? He couldn’t tell. 

“Hey Sonic!” Rotor called. “I think we better focus on that one!” Sonic turned to the sound of Rotor’s voice, wondering what ‘that one’ was. It turned out to be a Gaia spawn that was much bigger and bulkier than the rest. The thing was at least twice the size of the other monsters and three quarters of the size of the buildings around it. Sonic agreed, homing attacking the smaller monsters in a chain to get to where Rotor was quickly. Before they could do anything however, both gulped loudly.

_ “The air charms…”  _ Sonic held it to his eyes, and noticed it lacked the glow it’d once had. He could feel the effects too. It was weird, not ‘breathing’. The organic parts of his mind screamed that he was in danger, but he could see and feel that he was completely fine.  _ “Get to the surface!”  _ Sonic instructed. 

“What about you!?” Rotor managed to say with the last of his air charm’s energy. 

_ “I’m going to try and make it back to the shrine! I’ll send someone to help you!” _

They never managed that plan. As Rotor began to swim upwards, the larger monster grabbed him, oversized hands clenched together tightly. Sonic lunged for his friend - then stopped. His vision was beginning to fade and his limbs were starting to stiffen, making it much harder to move. He internally cursed, remembering that he was supposed to be charging his backup power, and had been completely neglecting to do so. Rotor was nothing more than a thrashing purple blur by now, nanite suit retracted due to his panic - he couldn’t possibly have much air left. Sonic let out a horrible screech, like two pieces of scrap metal being scraped together. He couldn’t let it end like this! His power gem shone with that same dark energy. Those claws from before returned, purple mist rising as his hands split and reconfigured themselves. His vision was growing darker and blurrier, his body’s mutations becoming a mystery to him, but Blue could’ve sworn that he  _ felt  _ a twinge of pain in their jaw - only it couldn’t have been, could it? They didn’t  _ feel  _ things. It was probably just a panic response. 

He didn’t have any more time to think about that though. His systems hummed with power as they suddenly began to receive and convert oxygen again. How though…? As his vision returned, Sonic turned his head upwards to see….Chaos!? The water god stood above him. Despite only being in his base form, Sonic couldn’t help but feel awed. The god had created a bubble around both him and Rotor, (presumably rescuing Rotor whilst Sonic couldn’t see) and was now punching his way through hordes of the Dark creatures, diminishing them with ease. 

_ “Well, I guess you could say Chaos really...turned the tides around?”  _ Sonic joked. Rotor merely groaned in response. Sonic laughed to himself as he took a short rest, hoping that things had also turned around back at the shrine. 

_____________________________________________________________________

“Spirits, if you can hear me,” Coral knelt before Aquarius. “We need a miracle. The rites...Something has gone wrong. I don’t know what, but the city needs help, and I...I cannot do it.” 

No reply. Coral got to her feet with determination. She felt like giving up. She wanted to. But she couldn’t. No, with everyone else doing their part, she couldn’t hide in here and do nothing. Aquarius’s cocoon sat, unmoving as ever.  _ “Here goes nothing…”  _ Coral thought, preparing for yet another try at getting the chao to hatch. 

_ “Priestess, please forgive me for not answering your calls sooner,”  _ Coral stopped dead in her tracks as an otherworldly presence filled the chamber.  _ “These dark forces hinder mortals and spirits alike. Fear not though. None of this is your fault. Help is on its way. It may have already reached the others.” _

The cocoon before the betta glowed brightly, a spectrum of coloured lights illuminating the surrounding walls. It cracked, the thing shell that covered it falling away like flower petals, as the form of a chao became clear inside. 

“Aquarius!” Coral rushed forwards to hug the newly reborn chao, who nuzzled her gently in return. “Thank you, spirit!”

_ “Do not thank me, it was you who did everything right. As I’m sure you know, chao can be reborn. But if you care for a chao exceptionally, they will evolve into something more. Something eternal.”  _ The voice explained.  _ “That is why Aqaurius took so long. You did nothing wrong.” _

“Still, thank you,” Coral smiled. “Can you please stay? I need to restore the city’s shields…”

_ “I would be honoured. And please…” _ the air shimmered as the form of an orange echidna materialised. “Call me Tikal.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” Coral murmured shyly. “The city’s protective shields have been growing weaker as of late...I don’t know how to fix it…” 

“Again, that is no fault of your own,” Tikal reassured. “That will be the dark god’s doing. But there is a way to make them stronger again - if you perform the rites with another.” 

“Another!” Coral gasped. “Pearly! Can you come in here please! I need your help!” 

The manta ray dashed into the shrine, looking scared. “Coral!? What’s going on!? Who’s this lady!?” 

“Shh, I’ll explain later.” Coral promised. “But right now, you need to do the rites, like we practiced, ok?” 

“Ok!” Pearly agreed.

Outside the shrine, Amy swung for a monster, only for it to vanish before she could hit it, appearing to burn up. “Hey Coral!? I don’t know what you’re doing in there, but please keep doing it!” 

The sound of the Mystic Melody hit the hedgehog’s ears, its sound filling the cavern. More and more monsters began to burn and vanish, until none remained. Amy collapsed onto her hands and knees, a night’s worth of fighting catching up to her. Razor was in a similar position, doubled over and trying to catch his breath. 

Sonic pulled himself into the shrine's cavern, Rotor not far behind. As he scanned the area, he noticed a figure standing near the shrine, who he first thought was Coral, but on a double take, definitely wasn't.  _ "I know you, don't I?"  _ Sonic searched his memories.  _ "You're Tikal, right?"  _

"Yes, that's me," the echidna took a step closer to him. "It's been such a long time, hasn't it, friend?"

_ "...Can you hear me?" _

"Of course! A few thousand centuries go by and you're bound to learn some other languages." She turned to make it clear that she was addressing Amy and Rotor too. "I don't have much time - Aurora sent Chaos and I to offer our guidance, and that includes helping you figure out what must be done to fix the planet." 

"I'm listening," Rotor confirmed as he got himself more comfortable.

"You've already figured out the temples, and how the Chaos Emeralds, which you are replacing what the ancient people used larger, more powerful power gems for, need to be placed inside. And as I'm sure you must've worked out, this is one of the temples you're looking for."

"I thought as much," Rotor agreed. "But where does the emerald go? I couldn't find anywhere for it."

"That's what I'm here to explain. The slots for the emeralds are all hidden within deeper chambers in the temples, that require special keys to unlock - a sun key and a moon key for each. They're kept by guardians, trained with knowledge passed down through generations. Here however, I believe we have a special case on our hands. Aquarius will know where to find them if you ask her." 

"Right. So we've got to find the keys, open the temples, and stick the emeralds in?" Amy asked.

"Yes." Tikal confirmed. "Only you must do them all at once. The planet may heal in an uneven and unnatural way if not." 

_ "That's fine. We don't actually have any emeralds on us right now anyway." _

Tikal sighed. "I wish I could do more to help, but as I said, this dark god's power isn't just affecting the mortal realm. It has weakened the powers of myself, Chaos, the Neo-walkers and every other entity that walks the line between life and death...Though if you're ever in need of help, the Mystic Melody is a very easy way to summon me or one of the others." 

"I can teach it to one of you, if you don't mind spending the afternoon here," Coral chipped in. 

"I'd be happy to take you up on that!" Amy replied excitedly.

"I'm sure Sonic can handle a few more hours underwater, right?" Rotor glanced at the robian who beeped out a sarcastic response. 

In spite of Sonic's less than enthusiastic attitude, they did stay the afternoon. Amy was a quick learner, getting the basics of the melody down pretty fast, and it wasn't too long before Coral was satisfied with her ability to play. Rotor meanwhile, discovered that one of the pools around the cavern was a lake of rings, and immediately began stockpiling them - who knew when a few extra rings could come in handy? 

And when the sun started to sink behind the horizon, it was time to go. Farewells were said, with promises to return once they had an emerald, and the Freedom Fighters were on their way, back to the Sky Patrol and the others.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



	4. Nervous energy

The meeting back on the Sky Patrol was pleasantly upbeat. Amy told everyone about how they had successfully located a Gaia temple and in return, Tails presented them with a glimmering purple Chaos Emerald.

"Pretty cool, right?" Tails asked, seeming almost smug. "Sally hacked into one of Eggman's databases, and we got to his emerald mining site before he could get the emerald out of it." 

_ "Very cool, dude. What's our next mission though?"  _

"We'll rest here for a couple of hours, and then I want to take you and Amy to this site here. Eggman's got a big base, it seems like he's guarding something important." Sally showed a map on one of the Sky Patrol's many screens. "Whilst Antoine and Rotor go to this city to investigate more potential manuscripts, maybe help the locals beat back the Gaia spawn whilst you're at it, and Tails and Nicole keep working at cracking into Eggman's databases."

A collective murmur of agreement was let out before most of the Freedom Fighters went back to their usual sections of the Sky Patrol for a quick break, which Sonic decided to spend worriedly pacing around, wondering what to do about that energy he absorbed. Everyone had told him to talk to someone but...well what real effect had it had so far? At worst, his nanites were reacting to his emotions more - that was all. Probably not worth bothering busy people over.

As the time came to leave, Sonic observed Sally and Nicole, standing in an embrace near the exit. He brushed past them awkwardly, trying to make it seem like he hadn't noticed what seemed like a pretty private moment. He couldn't help but overhear a little of what they were saying on his way by however. 'Promise me you'll be safe,' Nicole was begging, but Sally was laughing it off, assuring her that they'd be fine; they were just going to investigate a base after all, as far as their missions went this one was pretty harmless.

"Sally you don't understand!" Nicole whispered. "Sonic...There's something wrong with him. An intrusion in his systems. I asked around about it and found out he absorbed some of that dark energy! Who knows what that could be doing to him!"

Sonic increased his walking speed a little more, a sense of guilt starting to weigh him down. Never mind the energy, he told himself firmly. He just needed to focus on the mission. Focus on finding those temples. It'd all work out in the end, right?

______________________________________________________

"Freedom Fighters have been spotted near the base, Ma'am!" A legionnaire reported.

The chinchilla chuckled, “Excellent. Everything is going according to plan. Ready my Mech, quickly!” The legionnaire rushed out of the room, running past Metal as he entered the room.

"Ah! Metal! You best get ready, you're coming with us. We're about to kick those disgraceful little twerps’ as- Is something wrong?" Thunderbolt frowned at the hedgehog, who was staring at his feet.

"I did very poorly in my last fight against them," Metal opened and closed his fists in frustration. "This form...it is so weak. I am starting to suspect the Doctor had some ulterior motive when changing me."

There was something else too. For the first time, Metal felt afraid. It was illogical, he knew he had nothing to fear, but it still resided inside him like an unwanted computer virus. This isn't what his family would've wanted, is it? Family!? Metal buried his face in one arm, claws scraping through his fur in confusion. What family? He hadn't been  _ born _ . He had no family. 

So where had that thought come from…?

"Well, our Lordship does work in mysterious ways sometimes...But hey, don't beat yourself up! I mean, you  _ have _ actually been eating and drinking recently, so that'll help."

"Yes, I suppose I am in better condition now," Metal agreed absentmindedly. He was still caught up on his thoughts. It was just a slip up, he decided. Everyone said or thought things that didn't exactly make sense from time to time, right? 

Realising that thinking about this for too long would only make him feel worse and more confused, Metal headed out of the room to get ready for a fight. 

_______________________________________________________

After the aquaphobe's nightmare that had been grappling with the Dark Gaia spawn underwater, Sonic was grateful to get back to simply destroying Badniks in a nice, grounded jungle. Before the Bot could get his hands on the last one however, it was sent flying back into a nearby cliff face by one strong punch. Sonic turned to see who the puncher had been, only to nearly have his face obliterated before Sally yelled at whoever was punching to stop. 

Now not in danger of being smashed up, Sonic looked to see who had been throwing said punches. Before him stood the familiar form of Mighty the Armadillo, who was looking pretty pleased with himself. The robian let out a bleep of relief.

"Hey Mighty!" Amy waved, pulling her hammer out of the bashed up remains of a robot. "Long time no see!"

"Hi," Mighty replied. "What are you guys doing out here?"

"Looking for places called 'Gaia Temples' and Chaos Emeralds," Sally explained. "They're the key to fixing the planet. We got wind that there was one out here, but it looks like Eggman beat us to it." 

"Oh don't worry, I know all about that," Mighty sighed. "Ray and I have been scouting around that base for about a week now - it's too heavily armed for just the two of us to take it out."

"But, if we all storm it together, we can handle them, right?" Amy guessed.

"I sure hope so." Mighty agreed. "But...Let's not wreck it up too bad. I need to try and get some information out of there."

"We were hoping their computers might have some details of the locations of temples and emeralds, so that's fine by us." Sally said, agreeing with Mighty's stance on the situation.

"Good. I'll go find Ray, and then maybe we can make our way down there?"

"Sure thing!" Amy exclaimed. 

Ray was resting in a small hut, where an older looking green sloth sat alongside him - the two appeared to be sipping tea. Ray waved to the other Freedom Fighters, jumping in surprise when he saw the robian enter. A look of uncertainty fell over his face, but seeing that the others trusted the robot, the kid seemed to relax. 

_ “Geeze, with a face like that, you would’ve thought a badnik just walked in,”  _ Sonic complained, feeling hurt by Ray’s jumpy reaction. 

“I mean, you can’t really blame him, Sonic,” Amy patted the robian lightly on his shoulder pad.

“Wait, ‘Sonic’?” Mighty’s ears perked up. He seemed surprised. 

“Yeah, could you not tell?” Amy withheld a laugh, not wanting to be rude. 

“Well, I heard a rumor that the Freedom Fighters were running around with a reformed Metal Sonic, so when I saw that you guys were aligned, I just thought…” Mighty scratched the back of his shell bashfully. 

“I trust that these are old friends of yours, Mighty?” the green sloth inquired after another sip of tea. 

“Oh, right!,” Mighty looked like he couldn’t get any more embarrassed if he tried. “Everyone, I’d like you to meet Moss. I’ve been staying out here with him, and learning a lot.” 

Ray jumped to his side, “Yeah! He can control his anger a lot better now! Moss knows so much stuff!”

“That’s good to hear!” Sally said with a smile.

_ “Never took Mighty as the kind of guy who’d take an anger management class.”  _

Moss got up unexpectedly after Sonic’s comment, pointing a long, clawed finger at the hedgehog. “You.” Sonic pointed a finger at himself in confusion. “It is you who is bringing all the dark energy in here,” the sloth continued. “An uncontrolled, untamed darkness…” 

“That’s the exact same thing Nicole told me…” Sally eyed Sonic up suspiciously. “What actually happened to you?”

_ “I just got a little too close to some of the energy samples in the Science Centre. It hasn’t affected me at all though, I’m fine.”  _ Sonic shuffled his feet uncomfortably.  _ “Look, let's just get to the base and get whatever we need from inside. If we wait any longer, we might have to deal with Gaia spawn as well as the Legion.”  _

Sally reluctantly agreed that Sonic had a point, and so the party of five headed off in the direction of the base, with Ray excitedly explaining that he thought he’d overheard legionnaires saying that they were holding a Chaos Emerald in there. Now with a potential Chaos Emerald to nab on top of everything else, Sally considered stealth tactics for a brief second, before seeing that everyone else had gone in full charge anyway. So much for a sneaky emerald stealing operation. The five stormed into the outer area of the base, beating back robots and legionaries that came rushing out alike. A siren wailed as they cleared through hordes of enemies, bright red lights cutting through the dusky sky, altering Eggman's forces of the attack.

Something seemed wrong about this fight though, and it was a feeling none of the fighters could quite shake off. At first everyone shook it off, too caught in their adrenaline to notice. The longer they went on though, the less forces came out and it was hard not to notice how empty the battlefield was becoming. Mighty and Ray noticed it the most - they  _ knew  _ the base had more forces than this. As soon as a legionnaire took one or two hits, they would retreat quickly. The lack of any real fight being put up was suspicious and concerning. Just as Sally was about to give the orders to retreat, an unfamiliar voice crackled over a large set of speakers. 

“Given how much trouble you’ve given our glorious Lord Eggman, I was surprised you fell for our trap so easily,” The voice sounded maliciously gleeful, as though the speaker was going to enjoy the acts they were about to commit. “Still, I’m not complaining. You’ve made our jobs incredibly easy!” 

A crackling sound filled the air, various towers around the outside of the base lighting up with a harshly bright light. 

“ _ That doesn’t look good, _ ” Sonic stated, on edge.

“RUN!” Sally shouted, and everyone tried to make a dash for it, but it was too late. Out from the glowing towers shot large beams of electricity, locking onto the now trapped mobians. Amy and Ray got hit down first, screeching as they toppled down onto their hand and knees from the pain of the electric sting rushing around their bodies. Mighty slowed down as he heard Ray, turning back for his little brother before getting hit full force too. Sally froze in place, desperately trying to formulate a plan in the limited time she had. “Sonic, the towers...if we can hit then then-” 

The plan couldn’t even leave her mouth before both she and Sonic got zapped alongside everyone else. 

The electricity pulsed around Sonic’s circuits, the unpleasant overcharge causing him to lose control of his limbs. The screams and screeches of his friends were the only noises that he could hear, like nails on a chalkboard, being drilled into his brain. Things couldn’t end like this! His friends couldn’t die screaming in a ditch. That Grand Master up there...whoever they may be...He wanted to hunt them down and kill them. He tried to pull himself up. He couldn’t. The Grand Master laughed with glee over the speakers, only making Sonic want to tear them to pieces more. 

“How are you feeling down there Freedom Fighters?” The speakers buzzed. “Having fun? Then I hope you won’t mind if I turn the voltage up!” 

Something snapped. 

Sonic couldn’t bear it any longer. 

His hands dug into the ground, spurting those same old claws he was accustomed to by now. But the changes didn’t stop there this time. With a beep of horror, the robian realised he could  _ see  _ his muzzle elongating before his very eyes. Inside his now expanding mouth, there came a forigen yet also familiar feeling. Pain. Blue recognised it well, but this was on a new level. His gums ached as new teeth formed inside, longer and sharper than any hedgehog’s teeth should’ve been. His body grew in size too, arms becoming somehow even bulkier than before as Sonic’s entire body was remodeled as easily as he was made of clay. His once blocky feet split into toes, and his legs completely reshaped themself into something a lot less mobian.

Inside the mindscape, everything was tinted red, and there appeared to be some kind of earthquake taking place. Blue held onto Titan, squinting at the screen to try and figure out what on Mobius was going on.The whole screen looked distorted, everything tinted some shade of red, much like the mindscape. As the hedgehog tried to get closer, a large, glowing rock flew through the air, knocking him right out, taking one side of the hero out of the picture, and leaving only his raw emotions to take charge. 

And said bundle of raw emotions was not having a good time. He vaguely remembered Blue registering the strange, unidentifiable sensations all over his body as ‘touch’ and ‘pain’, two sensations that Bot was finding incredibly overwhelming. He wanted the stinging feeling to  _ stop.  _ The tower. Right. That’s what Sally had said. It was coming from the tower. The robian forced himself onto his feet - or tried to at least. His new legs wouldn’t let him. But the pain! Growing frustrated, Sonic imagined himself throwing a punch all the way over there - and somehow it worked. He didn’t know how, nor did he care how. Drunk with anger and power, he clumsily charged at the tower and the legionaries in it. 

___________________________________________________________________

The electrocution had stopped, so that was a good thing, but Mighty didn’t feel much better. His body hurt from head to toe, and his friends weren’t looking much better. 

“Sonic…” Sally groaned, getting up and helping Amy along with her. “Did anyone see what happened to Sonic…?” 

“No, but I can now,” Amy pointed to the rampaging robian, tearing into a large looking mech suit and tightly clenching its driver in an oversized hand. “What happened to him…?” 

“That’ll be the dark energy he absorbed…” Sally murmured breathlessly. “Come on, we’ve got to stop him before he-” 

“No.” Mighty watched as Sonic was forced to drop the small, yellow chinchilla he’d been grasping when a blue hedgehog swooped in to get her out of there. The two retreated deeper into the jungle trees. In his normal state, Sonic probably would’ve left it there. Now, he perused them. “Let me handle Sonic. You three focus on getting that emerald whilst everyone’s distracted.” 

“Alright.” Sally agreed to Mighty’s idea. “When we’ve got the emerald, we’ll come find you.” 

Mighty nodded, and ran off in the direction Sonic had run. It had been shocking enough to see him as a robian earlier, and now to see him like that- No, he needed to stay focused. It didn’t matter what form Sonic was in, he was still his friend, and the robian needed help. Mighty ran quickly, knowing that Sonic probably couldn’t have gotten far, judging by how he’d been awkwardly stumbling around back at the base. The sounds of beeps and grunts caught his attention. Mighty swerved off of his current path in the direction of the sounds. 

Sure enough, it was those legionnaires from the base, running from an angry, confused Sonic, who was swiping at the furiously, claws outstretched. They were both getting good hits on him to hold him off, the hedgehog throwing punches with cybernetic hands, the chinchilla using something similar to the electric shocks that had come from the base but in spite of that, their escape failed. Sonic grabbed one in each hand, squeezing with the intent to crush lungs.

“Thunderbolt. Can you use a shock on him?”

“Are you crazy!? You’ll get shocked too!”

Not wanting this to go on for any longer, Mighty tackled Sonic to the ground. The robian screeched in fury, dropping his targets, who stumbled their way back to the base as soon as their feet touched the ground. Sonic furiously beeped something that Mighty couldn’t understand before trying to follow the escaping legionaries. The armadillo spread his arms out and stood in Sonic’s way, calmly blocking the way. “Sonic, this isn’t you. You don’t do this. Amy, Sally and Ray will have gotten the Chaos Emerald by now, and that’s what matters. The Legion are unforgivable, but we’ll fight them another day, when we’re not all tired and injured.” 

Instead of calming down like Mighty had hoped, Sonic’s anger only seemed to worsen. He swung a heavy arm right at Mighty, who only just managed to dodge it.  _ Alright, well I’ve stopped him from murdering the legionnaires,  _ Mighty thought.  _ So that’s a plus.  _ It didn’t exactly feel like a plus though, as all that seemed to have done was make the robain intent on going after  _ him.  _ “Sonic, you’ve got to control your anger, or it’s going to contro-” Mighty couldn’t finish. Sonic caught him in one hand, and flung him into the dirt. 

The armadillo skidded to a halt in the dirt. He took a deep breath,  _ Ok, Mighty, you’ve just gotta stay calm. Sure, he seems intent on killing you, but he’s also your friend, and he needs your  _ help.  _ So what now…?  _ Keep talking to the robian? That hardly seemed to be doing any good, but what other option did he have? The alternative would be fighting Sonic, which seemed like it would probably cause even more problems. Filled with resilience, Might got up, and tried to get through once more. “You’re strong enough to fight this Sonic. Someone else might’ve been fully corrupted by now, but you’re still in there, right? I can tell-” 

Mighty gasped as a clawed hand nearly snatched him up. What was he doing wrong? Was Sonic really so far gone that he couldn’t be brought back to his senses? Surely not. 

“Mighty! Look out!” Ray called to the armadillo, who jumped backwards as a fist was thrust at him. 

“Thanks buddy! Did you guys get the emerald?” Mighty asked, seeing Amy and Sally run alongside his little brother. 

“Yeah! How’re things with Sonic?” 

“Could be better,” Mighty narrowly dodged another claw swipe from Sonic, only barely. “He’s not listening to anything that I say, everything I tell him only seems to make him angrier!”

"...Well maybe…" Sally watched Sonic carefully. "Do you think it's possible that something's messing with his perception of everything?"

“That could be it!” Amy agreed. “But if that’s the case, how do we get through to him?”

“I have an idea, just follow my lead.”

Amy and Sally ran to where Sonic was about to land another strike on Mighty and stood before him, arms outstretched to shield their friend. Sonic seemed to falter in his step, fangs dripping liquid as he snarled, still poised to strike but not doing so. 

“Sonic, you don’t do this. You  _ can’t  _ do this. All the times in the past when you’ve had someone in this position, you weren’t able to do it.” Sally could barely breathe, but continued to stand her ground. Sonic’s look of uncertainty increased, still positioned to strike but showing no sign of doing so.

“You never cross the line,” Amy picked up from where Sally left off. “And Mighty is our friend. You’d never be able to stay mad at him for too long, let alone kill him.”

_ “Kill...Mighty…”  _ Sonic’s arms fell to his sides uselessly.  _ “I-I was going to kill Mighty…” _

He stared at his now giant hands, then at Mighty, shaking and injured on the ground. The armadillo looked so small from the perspective of Sonic’s monstrous form. Everything seemed off, in fact. His greatened height was making the world look distorted and unfamiliar. The newly returned sense of touch was overwhelming - every little sensation felt amplified greatly. He could feel the dirt moving under his feet even when standing still. The tiniest echo of a breeze. A twig logged in his spines.

And also someone putting their arms around him.

He looked down to see Sally doing just that, trying to offer some form of comfort to her friend. He wanted to hug back but also didn't want to crush her. "Come on," Sally murmured. "Let's go back to Moss. We'll wait the night out, and investigate in the morning, ok?" 

Sonic agreed quickly, barely even listening. Sally could've said the most ridiculous thing in the world and he probably would've agreed - he didn't want to cause any more trouble. Amy and Sally guided their friend as he trudged along, falling several times due to his now paw like feet. Behind them, Ray helped Mighty up off the ground, letting him lean on his shoulder. It was frustrating, it reminded him of how he hadn't been able to walk for a while after being roboticized. Though no one was judging him, he couldn't help but feel humiliated. At least his friends were supportive.

After reaching Moss’ hut, Sonic immediately collapsed onto the floor. Ignoring the noises of the outside world and another wave of the new negative sensation of pain over his body, Bot released a heavy sigh, realising that a certain someone was missing, he quickly slipped into the mindscape to look for Blue. 

Inside the mindscape, his form had changed too, now looking a lot more like his changed self on the outside. He wasn't quite as bulky though, which made getting around easier. Blue wasn't hard to find, he was lying on his stomach, seemingly knocked out. Like Bot, Blue’s form had changed, though he was much fluffier than Bot.

Experimentally, Bot ran his hand through Blue's thick layer of fur, marveling at how it felt. Not all feelings were bad, he realised. It seemed to wake Blue up too. The hedgehog's ears shot up and his muzzle flushed red, eyes darting around wildly. 

"Bot!" Blue darted away from his twin's hand, the now large robian jumping from the noise in the real world causing everyone to glance at him briefly with confusion. "What- What're you- What happened!?"

_ “Uh,” _ Bot side-glanced at the monitor then back to Blue, “ _ Not accidentally almost killing our friends that’s for sure.” _

"Not what now!? And why do you look like that?" 

“ _ Well, everything became so overwhelming; the new feeling of pain, the anger, our friends getting hurt. Something just snapped, I guess the energy stuff took the opportunity to, I don’t know mess with us? With me? A-and I almost killed this ball of a legion boss, a weird looking blue hedgehog legionary and… Mighty.” _ Bot’s ears drooped but perked up after a second, “ _ But, Amy and Sally managed to snap me out of it before it was too late.” _ Bot then gave Blue a smug look, poking Blue in a currently much more furry arm. Blue kept looking at Bot with a confused look before he realized something.   
  
He can see  _ much  _ more of his muzzle now and it was a different color.

“What in Chaos?!?” Blue screamed, making Bot jump once again in the real world.

After a moment Ray poked the large robian nervously. After no response from him Ray asked, “ s-should we be w-worried about t-that?”   
  
Amy and Sally glanced at each other. “He’s probably talking to the other him in his head,” Amy answered pointing towards her forehead, “there’s technically two of him in there.”

“Well, we should probably discuss  _ that  _ to see if we can help any.” Mighty sighed, taking a long drink from his tea.

Back in the mindscape Bot was making the best attempt he could to calm the freaking out fellow werehog. Blue was frantically looking up and down his form, confused out of his mind. In response, Bot tried his best to calmly get the werehog to sit down so they could talk.

Once all was explained, Blue buried his head in his paws, looking upset. "I'm sorry, Bot. If I hadn't been so reluctant to talk to someone, then maybe-"

_ "Don't beat yourself up. I don't know what people would've been able to do, even if we had talked to someone." _

A call from outside made both werehog's ears perks up. In the physical world, Sonic stopped zoning out and met his friend's gazes with a grin, albeit forced. 

"Is everything alright up there?" Sally asked. 

Sonic scrambled his way into a better position before giving a thumbs-up for a reply. Blue was beginning to get over the initial freak out now. He gave the group an apologetic look, “ _ I’m sorry about spacing out like that. Blue somehow got knocked out and kinda freaked out about, _ ” Sonic gestured to him, “ _ this. _ ”

“Can you change back?” Amy pondered. “Like, could you just shift your nanites, and look like your old self?”

“ _ I’ll give it a try, _ ” Sonic focused and tried to make the nanites change him back. But no matter how much Bot and Blue tried, nothing happened. Sonic let out a growl of frustration and shook his head, “ _ I can’t. I don’t know what’s keeping me like this _ .”

Sally hummed, "I'm sure we'll figure this out at hq."

" _I hope so, I don't want to be this on top of being a robot. Even that I'm still getting used to._ " Sonic glanced at himself again. _"I barely recognise myself. I don’t_ feel _like myself."_ He paused, glancing at Mighty and Moss this time. _"I don't want a repeat of last night...You and Amy take that emerald back to the Sky Patrol. I want to take a crash course in whatever Mighty's been taking."_

Sally hesitated before answering, "That's fine by me, but how long do you think you'll be gone?"

_ "A day or two at most. I want to get back on the team as quickly as possible." _

"Sounds like a plan then!" Sally agreed. 

As the group discussed the days to come, the sun crept over the horizon. Its pale yellow rays seeped in through the window and landed on Sonic, who glinted slightly before randomly being engulfed by a puff of purple smoke.

Everyone gasped or recoiled in shock, frantic to see what was happening inside the smoke cloud. As it cleared, the much smaller form of Sonic as he had been before last night stepped out. His sense of feeling was gone and the hedgehog was thoroughly disorientated but otherwise fine. No notable damage done.

All of them stared at the robian hedgehog as he blinked a few times before falling back with a loud, frustrated sigh.    
  
“ _ Sure, work when the sun comes up. Guess you’re solar powered now. Stupid nanites. _ ” Sonic huffed, glaring at the ceiling of the hut.

“That’s probably because Dark Gaia’s power is stronger at night…?” Sally said, feeling awkward and unhelpful because Sonic was going through a lot.

Sonic continued to glare at the ceiling, Ray giving the robian a nervous but sympathetic pat on his head. Sonic verified that he could no longer feel again.  _ "It doesn't matter, I guess. You guys go back to the Sky Patrol and I'll stay here as planned."  _

"Alright," Sally agreed, handing her earbud over to Mighty. "But be careful." 

_________________________________________________________

It was early in the afternoon by the time Sally and Amy finally got back to the Sky Patrol. Almost immediately after boarding, Nicole rushed at Sally. "Where have you been!?" The lynx looked like she was trying to get angry but couldn't bring herself to. "I was trying to call you last night, and I...And you didn't pick up so I was starting to worry that-"

Amy slipped past Sally to take the emerald somewhere safe, whilst Sally stayed to talk. "No! No, I'm fine! Things did go a bit wrong, but it all worked out." 

Nicole gave her girlfriend a concerned look, “What kind of trouble?” She caught sight of Sally’s arms. “You’re covered in burns…”

“Oh, that was nothing big, we just rushed into something too fast.” Sally slipped her arms behind her back. “Sonic though...You were right, that dark energy didn’t do him any good.”

“What happened?” Nicole couldn’t help but notice the robian was missing. “You didn’t have to destr-”

“Oh, no! Sonic’s fine, he’s staying with Mighty until he adapts to all the changes that happened to him!” 

Now knowing that her friend was fine, Nicole relaxed a little more. “Those burns need treating, you know?”

“They’re not that bad.”

“No?” Nicole gently pulled one of Sally’s arms out from behind her back, holding her wrist as she looked it up and down. The lynx tenderly brushed a finger against Sally’s singed fur, causing her to grit her teeth and retract her arm. “Not that bad?”

Sally sighed, "Ok maybe it hurts a little but it's nothing to worry about."

“Will you at  _ least  _ let me make sure they don’t get infected?” 

Sally reluctantly agreed and let Nicole lead her to the medical room. It didn’t feel good. She wanted to be out there, doing as much as possible to help - being inside during these times was just making her antsy. Regardless, she sat there fairly patiently as Nicole gently cleaned her damaged arm. 

“How’s everyone else been doing?” Sally asked, unable not to notice how quiet it was. 

“I...Um...Well…”

“Start with the good news first?”

“Alright,” Nicole seemed to calm down a little. “Tails and I successfully hacked into the Eggnet. We found out that he’s also looking for temples. He’s stationed guards at some of them, and he’s got more legionnaires out looking for emeralds. I think if Tails and I keep at it, we can probably decrypt the locations.”

“And the bad news?”

“...We found Bunnie’s name listed in the Eggnet, under Grandmaster Beauregard’s chapter. When Antoine and Rotor got back, Antoine got a bit headstrong and...well…”

Sally gained a concerned look on her face, “Well what?”

“He took some of the extreme gear. We haven’t seen him since.” 

Sally sighed in frustration and muttered to herself, “What else can go wrong?”

“Uh, is this a bad time to appear?”    
  
Sally snapped her head over to the now occupied doorway. A familiar looking black and gold robot standing in it. Nicole looked over to him before face palming, “worst timing ever there, Shard.” 

“What? One minute we're in the middle of a discussion and then you disappeared after exclaiming ‘Oh she’s here!’ and I've never been in this place fully and spent like, 20 minutes trying to find you again!” Shard huffed, his only hand on his hips before realizing that Sally was glaring at him which caused him to raise both arms in front of him. “I- We can explain!”

“Start.”

“Your brother sent me because he thought you needed the extra help,” he stated with a nervous smile. “New Mobotropolis has everything covered for now, so he’s sending people out to give some extra hands.”

“I appreciate the help, but I don’t think we’re in a fit state to go emerald hunting right now,” Sally sighed. “You’re welcome to hang around until we go though.”

____________________________________________________________________

“Hold still!” 

Sally and Amy weren’t the only ones in need of being patched up. Miles away from the Sky Patrol, Metal sat, trying to be as still as possible but unable to stop wincing. Pain was still a foreign concept to Metal and one that he wished he could rid himself of. As a robot he had experienced curiosity over what pain was sometimes. It was worse than he'd anticipated. 

He was doing his best not to squirm too much as something cold was applied to his chest, but it wasn't working. 

"It'll only hurt more later if you don't do something about it now," Thunderbolt huffed, giving up with trying to get Metal to apply something for the deep scratches left by Sonic's claws when he grabbed them. The chinchilla began to growl in frustration, “When I get my hands on that….  _ Thing _ , I will make him regret embarrassing my legionnaires!”

Metal scoffed, “They did that on their own accord. They were incompetent.”

"We had them right where we wanted them! If Sonic hadn't turned into whatever that wolf thing was, the Freedom Fighters would be nothing but corpses!" Thunderbolt exclaimed. "Just imagine! Lord Eggman would be so proud, and I'd wipe the smug grin off of the faces of all those other grandmasters like Lien-Da! Then they'll treat me with the fear and respect I deserve!" 

Metal shifted uncomfortably. He'd never joined the Legion because he'd wanted to  _ kill  _ people, he'd just thought-

….

What was he thinking? He was  _ made  _ to kill.

Shaking yet another odd trail of thought aside, the second one of the evening, Metal instead decided to comment, "Didn't the doctor want Sonic intact though?" 

"Well, I suppose so...But I'm sure we would've been able to salvage him once his friends were dead."

Metal hummed, “I’m sure the doctor would want an update on the ambush… why not go tell him?” Metal winced as he applied a bit more pressure from the ice pack.

“I’m sure he can wait just a little bit longer,” she stated, “first, I need to make sure your wounds are properly taken care of. Even if it's with an ice-pack.”

“Do you think he will be disappointed with us?”

“Unfortunately, I think he will be.” Thunderbolt sighed. “It’s not like it’s our fault, we couldn’t have predicted that Sonic would do whatever he did back there, but unfortunately, I doubt our Lordship will see it that way.”

“What do you even see in him? The doctor. Why stick by him if he doesn’t appreciate your efforts?” 

“His power...Lord Eggman is behind some of the most impressive creations that this planet has ever known. It’s only natural that people should admire that.”

  
Metal stared at arms, unconvinced. The doctor had created impressive machinery, that was unquestionable, but that couldn’t be the only reason someone would dedicate their life to following him? He didn’t  _ get  _ organics. He might’ve been one of them, but he didn’t think he’d ever truly understand them.

**Author's Note:**

> Also, we have a discord. Its pretty cool : )  
> https://discord.gg/CHuQVTKCUP


End file.
